


<html>

by chuekito



Series: <html> [2]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-05-24 07:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6145461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chuekito/pseuds/chuekito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>G.H.O.U.L : Genetically Hybridized On-call Undercover Legion<br/>Need to get a job done but want to stay off the radar? No problem! Call G.H.O.U.L, and one of our highly-trained agents will be assigned to your task. Underground work made simple and safer for you! Call 1-800-RCEL to speak with one of our representatives today!<br/>...<br/>Tokyo's most mysterious underworld organization is surrounded by rumors. Two of them are true: they take any job, for the right price; and their agents are definitely not human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reboot

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! This is my first work here, so enjoy. I’m happy to answer any questions that you have about this world since it might be a tad bit confusing. This is unbeta'd so please tell me if you notice any mistakes, thank you!

Everything was red, thick, and heavy. He heard someone talking, though he didn’t understand a damn word. He was vaguely aware of the smell of something overripe. Fruit decomposing in the sun. A gentle hand pressed up against the small of his back, and he knew that it belonged to Rize. She laughed and her hand formed a claw that dug deep below his skin and wrapped itself around his spine. He screamed and tried to pull away, but Rize just laughed even harder and tightened her grip. As his consciousness faded, he could’ve sworn he’d heard her say,

_“I’m looking forward to the second date, Kaneki!”_

 

Kaneki woke with a start, throwing himself forwards with a gasp. His hand flew up to his left eye, which was itching madly. His fingers met protruding veins and he _shrieked_ , both because of his eye and the pain that blossomed in his abdomen. He scrambled for the edge of his shirt only to find that he was wearing a hospital gown and hooked up to several softly beeping machines. Kaneki took a deep, shuddering breath and very gingerly pulled up the gown to look down at his stomach. Well, those bandages would need to be changed. He thought he was going to be sick.

After finding a garbage can to puke bile into, Kaneki began to look around and wonder where the hell he was. It was cold and dry. The walls were bare, painted an oatmeal beige. It smelled so strongly of antiseptic that Kaneki thought he might pass out from the fumes. His room was cramped, filled to the brim with the medical equipment, and it almost seemed like the tiny (and hard, he thought, noticing the stiffness in his shoulders) bed was added in as an afterthought. There were no widows, and one door that led into an equally bare hallway. In his haste to get to the trashcan, Kaneki had pulled out one of his IV’s, and the other, which was connected to a rolling stand was now on the blissfully cool floor next to him. He crawled over to the stand, dragging his little pouch with him, and used it to stand up slowly. His legs felt like jell-o and being upright made him dizzy. But, nevertheless, Kaneki connected the bright red IV bag to its hook and made his way to the door. He wanted out, if only to find someone to help him. He was shaking badly from the effort, the cold, and fear. His heart was up in his throat and he briefly wondered if he was dead.

 _I never imagined death being so much like a hospital,_ he thought.  _Maybe it's for the best, at least I can see Mom again._

Just as Kaneki reached for the door knob, it swung inwards to reveal an older man in a lab coat. A huge smile spread across the man’s face, and he rushed forwards to help Kaneki to the cot.

“Hello Kaneki! I’m Doctor Kanou, glad to see you’re awake. We were worried that you might not make it through the surgery, but here you are! And awake too!” He set Kaneki down and looked him over like one might proofread a paper, and Kaneki squirmed under his gaze. Something about Kanou unsettled him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. “You must’ve ripped your stitches, huh?” He said, pointing to Kaneki’s side. The gown, which was previously a powder blue, now sported a dark red, slowly but steadily growing stain. He pressed his hand to his stomach softly, wincing as he felt the just how much it hurt. It hurt like a son of a bitch.

“I-I’m sorry, sir, but where am I? What surgery are you talking about?” Kaneki asked, as Kanou laid him down and began to undo the bandages. This whole situation was very anxiety producing, Kaneki could practically feel years of his life peeling away from the stress.

“I’m afraid that I can’t tell you where you are, since that’s classified. As for the surgery, you and a young woman were brought in after being severely injured. Unfortunately she didn’t make it. We had to give you some of her organs to keep you from dying too,” Kaneki suddenly, and vividly, remembered his date with Rize, the way that she had impaled him and the way that the beams felt crushing his fragile body. Kanou pulled away the last layer of wrappings to reveal a thin incision that stretched from Kaneki’s navel to his floating rib. The skin around it was pink, and the longer Kaneki seemed to look at it, the smaller it seemed to get. He rubbed his eyes, sure it was just his imagination and shock. “I’ll have someone come talk to you about your options, but for now just know that you’re going to be fine. Are you hungry? Do you need me to send in some food too?” Kaneki thought for a minute, remembering the paper that he had due on Monday, and that he needed to give Hide the notes for Asian History…

Shit.

Hide.

“Uh, Doctor, could I make a phone call?” Kaneki said softly, hoping that he didn't sound too desperate. He had so many questions to ask, but he had the feeling that Kanou would give him non-answers to everything. He bunched the thin, scratchy blanket of the cot up in his hands to keep them from shaking. Holy shit, this was not good. He was god knew where, injured, and the only person who would notice him missing had no way of contacting him.

“What for? We didn’t see any family contacts on your medical files.” Kanou asked, pressing an adhesive bandage over Kaneki’s stomach. The skin felt very prickly and hot, but Kaneki ignored it to answer Kanou.

“Well, I have this friend, and I have to let him know that I can’t get him the notes-”

“Absolutely not, Kaneki!” Kanou laughed, wagging his finger. “You need to be resting, not worrying about school! Don’t go to sleep quite yet, someone will be with you in just a few minutes to explain everything to you,” And with that, Kanou left, leaving Kaneki alone again. His stomach growled, and he wished that he'd accepted Kanou's offer on the food. He could really go for a hamburger.

 

 

 

Touka was training when she got the news about Rize, and about _him_. 

"Shit!" She yelled, punching the bag so hard that it flew off its chain. Lucky that they were alone in the gym, or she’d probably get scolded about her temper. Again. “Shit, shit, shit.” She whipped around to face Yomo, already fuming with anger. “The fuck do you mean that Rize’s dead? That bitch causes all this trouble for the rest of us, and then dies before she can even lie about getting it together?” Touka snarled, practically ripping the bindings off of her hands.

“I mean she’s dead. She and her target got into an accident. Target lived, Rize didn’t,” Yomo replied, not one to dance around the issue. Touka was sure that he only said a certain amount of words a day, like he was rationing them or something. It honestly freaked her out a little bit.

“Rize was a damn good agent, and you’re telling me that _her target_ made it through?”

“Yes.” Yomo replied monotonously, which only served to make Touka even madder. Couldn’t he at least pretend that the death of one of their fellow agents made him the tiniest bit uneasy? Touka brushed past him. She knew she was storming off like a petulant child, but she didn’t care. “Touka, he lived because Kanou put her kakuhou in him.” Yomo said quietly, as if someone could hear them. Touka felt the color drain out of her face, and her rage very quickly redirected to Kanou.

“That bastard,” she said. “Couldn’t he just be happy with fucking the rest of us up? Now he had to go and make a new ghoul out of nowhere.” Yomo said nothing, as usual. Touka turned towards the locker room. She practically stalked to the showers, turning on the water as hot as she could stand it, and then just a little bit more. She felt her throat closing up,

 _Stop it, don't you cry, you damn baby_ , she thought, 

Touka spent the rest of her shower frantically scrubbing her skin to wash off Yomo’s news. It was bad, real bad.

G.H.O.U.Ls were grown, not made. G.H.O.U.Ls were grown to complete jobs for their benefactors. G.H.O.U.Ls like her were fucked up and useless. G.H.O.U.Ls were tools for the organization, playthings for Kanou. But now, Kanou had found himself a new toy. And Touka was pissed about it. How dare he play god like that.

When she got out of the shower, her skin was tender and pink, and she wanted nothing more than a decent job. To rip, to tear, to devour, to be powerful when she felt so powerless. She dressed hastily, jogged back to her quarters on autopilot. Touka gently picked up Rabbit, the mask cool against her fingers, put it on, and adjusted it in her mirror. Time to go fuck something up.


	2. Downloading Errors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaneki gets assigned to his new squad. They're a joy to work with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two! Again, unbeta'd so I'd love to know about any glaring mistakes. I hope you enjoy!

Kanou probably could’ve found a worse person to talk to Kaneki. Although it would’ve been an impressive feat, considering how purposely confident they were. They practically strutted in, wearing a long, hooded white coat that could conceal any number of undesirable, painful things. Not to mention the snarling monkey mask. Despite the intimidating first encounter, where they introduced themselves as the “Devil Ape” and nearly sent Kaneki into shock when they peered through the door, “Devil Ape” was actually friendly enough.

“Hello! Kanou told me you’re our newest recruit, Kaneki Ken! Nice to meet you. I’m Devil Ape, one of the strongest” at this point, Devil Ape flexed comically, “ghouls in the facility. I’m gonna answer your questions because Kanou’s too chicken. Ah, don’t tell him I said that,” they laughed.

“U-um, thank you… Devil Ape.” Kaneki started, what the hell was he supposed to do? He was occupying the cot, and there wasn’t a chair for the ghoul to sit in. Was he supposed to be the hospitable one? He didn’t live here! He took a deep breath and pushed these thoughts out of his mind. He had his chance to find out what was going on. Kaneki had so many questions, but he thought he’d start with the classic, the obvious: “So, where exactly am I?” He gestured to the room around them, and Devil Ape laughed again,

“You’re in the G.H.O.U.L facility! I know Kanou told you it was classified, but you’ll have to go on an assignment eventually, so I’ll at least give you the basics. The facility is underground, literally. We’re in the sewer system beneath Tokyo, fun right?” They asked after seeing the look of disgust on Kaneki’s face. “Don’t worry, only the entrances only are in the system, everything else is clean. Got anything else? Come on, that’s like the most basic question ever! Don’t you want to know if the rumors are true?” Kaneki couldn’t see behind the mask at all, but he was sure that there was a huge grin across Devil Ape’s face. Yikes.

_I’d better ask what they want me to ask…. It’s not too smart to make someone like this angry._ Kaneki thought, twisting his IV tube in a loop around his finger.

“Are you … still … human?” He asked slowly, though he had a sinking feeling that he already knew the answer. Devil Ape made a disbelieving noise, shaking their head.

“I never was human, Ken! Sorry, can I call you Ken?” When Kaneki opened his mouth to reply, it was too late. Devil Ape had already moved on. “Great! No, I’m not human. I’m a ghoul, and although some of us were grown as adults, I was a test tube baby! 100% scientifically produced ghoul,” they said proudly, pointing to their chest as they spoke.

About an hour or so later, Kaneki had learned everything he thought possible about ghouls and their namesake. He had also learned of his assignment to a squad of other young agents, and although Devil Ape had listed off his teammate’s names, Kaneki couldn’t recall a single one of them. He was just too tired. But the thing that stuck with him despite his exhaustion was the fact that he was one of them now. A _ghoul_. Devil Ape told him that his body was rapidly changing, that even as they were talking he was becoming stronger than he had ever been as a human. With that strength came a responsibility to G.H.O.U.L, as well as quarters (if he wanted them), and a trip to the mask maker. Oh, and the newfound desire for human flesh. If he wasn’t so damn tired, he would’ve screamed -or something- when Devil Ape told him. But instead, he had just stared blankly until Devil Ape left to “let him process the information.” As Kaneki lay in his tiny, uncomfortable bed and counted the tiles on the ceiling, he felt nothing.

Nothing at all! How wonderful was that! Kaneki Ken, who was normally plagued by anxieties galore had suddenly just shut them all off, just like that. Shit, no wonder the PR ghouls didn’t lead with that to their new recruits. It made them disassociate like hell. Kaneki lay totally still, thinking of nothing, until he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

 

Kaneki woke up to the sound of his door opening, and a fair amount of shuffling and muttering. He sat up and saw that somehow, three more people had squeezed into his cramped room. Two girls who looked younger than him, but one not by much, and an older boy who was doing most of the muttering. When one of the girls noticed he was awake she smiled, and the other one said,

“Good morning shithead.” Kaneki was taken aback, and it must’ve showed because the other girl swatted her on the arm and whispered,

“Touka! You can’t say that!” The girl, Touka, just rolled her eyes. What the hell was this?

_Am I dreaming?_ Kaneki wondered, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He noticed that the pain in his abdomen was gone, and attributed it to copious amounts of morphine he was probably on. Maybe this was a morphine induced hallucination? No, the older boy just stuck out his hand roughly. Kaneki took it slowly, and gave it a shake. Definitely real. What a strange person this boy was. Who gave a handshake to an acquaintance in a hospital bed?

“Nishiki Nishio.” Ah. Apparently, Nishiki Nishio did.

“Nice to meet you, Nishiki. I’m Kane-” But he was cut off by the dark haired girl -Touka- he remembered.

“Kaneki Ken. We know. We’re your squad. Didn’t that damn Koma tell you anything?” She huffed, tugging absentmindedly at the sleeves of her sweater.

“Koma? Do you mean Devil Ape?” Kaneki asked, and he got an eye roll from Touka, and a sarcastic laugh from Nishiki as an answer. But before they could say anything, the youngest girl stepped in cheerfully.

“Yea, that’s Koma,” she smiled. “He thinks it's cool to introduce himself like that, he’s very proud of his reputation. I’m Hinami, by the way,” Kaneki smiled back. At least someone on his team wasn’t going to gut him every time he had a question.

“Anyways,” Touka broke in, “Get up. We have a lot to do. Hinami, you brought him some clothes, right?” What? Couldn’t this girl see that he was in a damn hospital? Well, of sorts. “Don’t give me that look, shitty Kaneki. You’re a ghoul now. You’re fine,” she said, tossing him the clothes. “Get dressed, we’ll be out in the hall.”

_What the fuck?_ Kaneki thought as he pulled off his hospital gown and peeled away the bandage that Kanou had put on. Like Touka had said, he really was fine. The incision on his side was no more than a white scar. When he pressed on it, it did nothing but ache dully. Oh yea, Devil Ape mentioned something about accelerated healing. That was one good thing at least.He pulled on the clothes that his squad had brought him. Were they the same that he had been wearing the night of the accident? No, that shirt would be shredded beyond belief and covered in blood. This one was clean, and smelled freshly bought. This G.H.O.U.L place was weird. Kaneki shook his head slightly and headed towards the door. When he walked out, he only saw Hinami waiting.

“The others thought it’d be funny if they hid. They’re just around the corner,” She said, standing up and brushing herself off. “They were gonna scare you when you walked around, but I thought that wasn’t very nice.” Honestly, that didn’t surprise him very much, the way his new squad acted made him think that they would be playing a good amount of pranks at least.

“Thank you, Hinami.”

“Don’t worry about it! Let's get going though, Touka wasn’t lying when she said we had a lot to do. We have to get you up to speed with our investigation, show you around a bit, get you to Uta…” she trailed off as they walked around the corner. Nishiki and Touka were waiting for them, and jumped out with a yell. Even though he’d been ready for it, Kaneki still jumped a little. The older two thought it was really funny, and Kaneki found it ironic that the youngest had to scold them for acting childishly.

The rest of the day passed in somewhat of a blur, as his squad dragged him around the huge facility. It was like a maze, though Hinami told him if he got lost to follow his nose to where he smelled coffee.

“The manager will help you,” she said, “He’s very nice.”

They made a trip to his quarters, just as bare and only a bit bigger than his hospital room. The bed wasn’t much better, but he had a bookshelf, a bathroom, a desk, and the door locked. Touka handed him a key and told him not to lose it. His squad had quarters near his, Nishiki and Hinami were just across the hall, and Touka was next door. It made him feel a bit better to know that they were so close, especially Hinami, who had been kindest to him. After his quarters, they stopped by the mask-maker’s workshop. Kaneki met a strange ghoul named Uta, who asked strange questions and almost seemed to be happy about strange answers. By the time they got to their workroom, Kaneki was exhausted. He all but collapsed into the chair at his desk. _His_ desk, how surreal. He was vaguely aware of Nishiki announcing that he was getting coffee. Hinami sounded excited and mentioned to Kaneki that they were lucky that their workroom was so close to the coffee “shop.” He could only smile weakly and listen half-heartedly to Touka setting up his computer and telling him the specifics about what he had to do.

 

“Earth to shitty Kaneki, are you listening, shitty Kaneki?” He came out of his daze to look up at her.

“What?” Touka exhaled just a tiny bit more forcefully than she needed too, and Kaneki regretted asking her.

“I said, type in a password. Try to make it difficult, you’ll be dealing with sensitive information.” She walked around to her desk, which was just in front of his, so that he could put something in.

_Shit,_ Kaneki thought, _I only have like two passwords for everything._

He ended up typing that thing that Hide always said to him when he was away for a bit, rabbits dying of loneliness and such, and added a 1 to the end for good measure. When he was done, Touka came back over to finish setting everything up. Kaneki took the time to look around the room. It was the same beige as everywhere else in the facility, except one of the walls was a whiteboard. There were four standard-issue looking black desks, each facing the whiteboard like they were in some strange school-work mutation. The desks all had identical computers (which lacked any company logo) and little name plaques. Kaneki opened one of the drawers and found it already stocked with pencils, pens, a pad of paper, and anything else a dutiful office worker could want. It was almost hard to believe that he was now an employee (was that the right word even?) of an underground…. he didn’t know what. Mafia? Gang? Cult? Whatever it was, it was trying very hard to create a normal-looking work environment. The look was completed with a small array of filing cabinets next to an outdated printer.  

Touka finished setting up the computer and spun Kaneki around in his swivel chair just as Nishiki came back with coffee. He had real mugs instead of the paper ones that Kaneki expected. Deciding to not mention it, he accepted his mug with a thanks, and took a moment to let the steam hit his face. God, it smelled good. There was a moment of silence as the squad enjoyed the coffee. It was the best cup of coffee that Kaneki had ever had in his life.

 

Nishiki very quickly started to get Kaneki up to speed on their current case, the assassination of a CCG investigator named Kureo Mado and the theft of several of his anti-ghoul weapons. Nishiki sighed heavily when he saw the fear on Kaneki’s face,

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to kill him. You and Hinami are in charge of stealing some of his quinques, Touka and I will be taking care of Mado.” Apparently, Mado’s obsession with collecting quinques was something of a bother to G.H.O.U.L, and the fact that he was getting very close to finding an entrance to the facility. He was strong enough to take on any ghoul that tried to stop him from getting to the doors, but the higher ups weren’t quite ready to go after him themselves.

“What do these quinques look like?” Kaneki asked.

“Depends,” Nishiki said, pushing up his glasses “Most of them look like briefcases, but I think Mado has some that are knives. Doesn’t matter, you’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em. You don’t have to take any specific ones, just grab as many as you can and haul ass.”

“Okay. What do we need to get them for, anyways? What do they do?” Kaneki asked, tapping the info into his report.

“Hell if I know, since you can do whatever you want with them once you have them. G.H.O.U.L probably just wants them away from the CCG. And I don’t know if you’ll like the answer to the second part. Quinques kill us. They’re made from kagunes.” Nishiki said, as if it was nothing.

“What the fuck,” Kaneki said monotonously, looking up from the screen again. “You can’t be serious!”

“Ha!” Nishiki laughed at Touka, who threw her hands up exasperatedly. “Pay up! I told you I could get him to say ‘fuck,’ now gimme my 1000 yen!” He turned back to Kaneki, “No, actually I was being serious. The CCG dissects us when they kill us and turns us into weapons.”

“You bastard, you had to use quinques to make him say it, that’s cheating!” Touka yelled.

“Doesn’t matter,” Nishiki said “Look, he’s even gone white as a sheet.” In response, Touka stuck her tongue out at him.

“You’ll have to fight me for it!”

“Anytime, pipsqueak!” Nishiki stood up, kakugan flaring.

“Hey, you two, stop it!” Hinami shouted. “That’s how you broke the last printer, remember! Now we’re stuck with Helen!” She pointed at the outdated printer, Helen, apparently.

“I mean, you’re right, Hinami,” Touka said, “But he cheated. And stop calling the printer Helen, you’re making me feel bad for the damn thing.” Hinami tossed her hands up and went back to work. Kaneki rubbed his temples, if Hinami had given up, it meant that loud, obnoxious, pigheaded squabbles were common. 

“You never said that quinques were off-limits, now pay up!”

“Fine you asshole, but I’ll get you back for this later,” Touka said, tossing down some bills that she seemed to produce from nowhere. Nishiki blew a fake kiss in her direction, and then went back to work, leaving only a very confused Kaneki. Everything resumed its normal pace without a mention of the fight. Or the bet, which Kaneki was unhappy about (who makes a bet on that sort of thing?). After a few more hours of work, Touka called it.

 

“Alright, that’s enough for today” she said, standing up and stretching. “Kaneki, come with me.” It was not a request, and Kaneki hurried to save his report and log off. He jogged after Touka, wondering why she wanted him to come with. “You’ve got an apartment, right?”

“Yeah, why?” He asked.

“You don’t want to spend the night here, do you? I can take you out of the system, since you don’t know your way around yet. What ward you in?” Kaneki was surprised by her sudden willingness to help him.

“This isn’t a prank, is it?” She looked over at him, and he knew that she really wasn’t joking. How strange.

“No. I can come pick you up in the morning too. I know how hard it is to adjust to this place.”

“That… would be great, Touka. Thanks.” Kaneki said, “Ah, but I don’t have my key, or my phone…” Touka fished around in her pockets, and pulled out, surprisingly, his key and phone.

“I thought you might say that. Here, your phone’s dead though.”

“Thank you!” He exclaimed, taking them. “You didn’t make a copy of the key, did you?”

“Why, so I could break in?” Touka laughed. “I don’t need a key for that. Your security is a joke. If I wanted in, I could just kick the door down.” They reached a red stairwell. The red was a welcome change from the oatmeal, and Kaneki was glad of it. Seven flights of stairs later, and he thought about adding it to a list of colors he never wanted to see again.

“How big is this place?” He huffed. Touka was waiting for him on a landing, and hit him over the head when he came up. “Ow!” Kaneki exclaimed, “That actually hurt” he muttered, rubbing the spot.

“Quit whining. We’re almost there anyways.” Three more flights later, Touka led him through yet another door, and another, and then a final one which was guarded by two masked figures. And then, they were in the sewers. The beautiful, stinking, maze-like sewers. And despite how tired he was, he smiled at Touka. “Don’t smile just yet,” she said, “We still have to climb to the surface without being seen.” The smile dropped.

Thank god, they did manage to make it to the surface without being seen. The ladder to the top was disgusting, Touka made him go first, and berated him for moving too slowly. But it was well worth it to see the city at night. And to be out of the facility. 

“What time is it?” Kaneki asked.

“No idea. Probably like two. Where’s your house?” He looked around, peeked his head out of the alleyway. They were close, good. In maybe five minutes he’d be home. He’d take a well-deserved and much-needed shower, then black out for maybe a day or so.

“We’re close, it’s this way.” The walk seemed longer than usual, maybe because of how strange everything felt. But finally, finally, he and Touka were at his door. He pulled out his key, and opened the door. But before he could take a single step in, Touka grabbed his shoulder urgently.

“Someone’s in there,” she hissed.

“What?”

“Someone. Is. In. There.” Touka repeated, pushing past him and creeping inside. Kaneki followed closely behind.

_I hope it’s not a robber, Touka’d probably kill them. Oh god, then she’d probably eat them!_ Kaneki shuddered, and reached out for the back of Touka’s shirt, if only to hold her back a little. And maybe because he was a bit scared. But just a bit. She tried to swat his hand away, but he was latched on tight.

As the living room came into view, Kaneki saw a figure on his couch. Shit, Touka was right. But what kind of robber took a nap in the middle of robbing? No that wasn’t a robber, that fluffy golden head could only belong to one person.

“Hide!” Kaneki gasped, stopping dead in his tracks, and yanking Touka back as hard as he could. They had to _leave._ Hide could not see him like this, could not be near him like this.

Unfortunately, Touka hadn’t been expecting Kaneki to pull her back. She stumbled, then Kaneki stumbled, and they fell to the ground in a loud and undignified heap. On the couch, Kaneki heard Hide wake with a start. He sat up and turned on the light.

“Kaneki? Holy shit man, am I glad to see you!” He exclaimed, and as Kaneki untangled himself from a very pissed off Touka, he noticed the bags under Hide’s eyes. “I’ve been calling you for the past week, didn’t you get my messages?”

“A week?” Kaneki muttered, running his hands through his hair. “Touka, why didn’t you tell me I was gone a week?” He turned to her, only to see that she looked as surprised as he felt.

“I-I didn’t know. I just found out today” Her brow furrowed, and her kakugan flared. “It was that damn Kanou, I’m going to kick his ass!” She was about to whip around and go out the door, clearly she had forgotten about the very human intruder on the couch in her anger. But Hide got her attention quickly, clearing his throat. He was holding out the T.V remote like it was a sword. 

“Excuse me, Miss Ghoul, but could you explain to me what you were doing with my friend?” He asked, slowly walking forwards, pulling Kaneki up and using himself as a shield. Touka snorted, but Kaneki heard her heart jump. The remote couldn’t hurt her, but Hide running to the CCG could.

“That remote couldn’t do shit with a human, put it down.”

“It happens to make me feel better,” Hide responded with a very strained grin, and Kaneki felt Hide's grip on his arm tighten. “Now, if you could answer me, that’d be great.”

“Hide, it’s oka-” But Hide cut him off,

“No Kaneki, it’s not. You were gone for a week. I was gonna file a police report tomorrow, but now it turns out that you were kidnapped by ghouls and so help me this will need a lot of explaining from her.” His tone was the same as Kaneki had ever heard him, light and cheerful. He stated it like he was merely commenting on the weather, but Kaneki knew better. Hide really was upset. More upset that Kaneki had ever seen.

“She’s okay, I promise. She helped me get here.” Kaneki pleaded, trying to pull Hide back.

_How did it end up like this?_ He wondered, _This isn’t what I wanted, I just want Hide to be safe, I don't want him to know anything about this!_ Kaneki vaguely realized he was breathing heavily.

“Hide, please, just sit down.” When he didn’t move, Kaneki grabbed him and tossed him over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. Maybe this ghoul thing wasn’t _all_ bad. “Touka, could you close the door please? And if you could put my key in the dish, that’d be great.”

“Kaneki what the fuck?” Hide said, “When have you ever been able to lift more than five kilos?” Kaneki brought Hide over to the couch and sat him down. He heard the door close and Touka toss the key into the dish like he’d asked.

“Ever since he became a ghoul,” She said, sitting down at the other end of Kaneki’s lumpy couch.

_Well shit,_ Kaneki thought.  _This just became a thousand times worse._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and constructive criticism are welcome as always!


	3. I/O

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dream team does pushups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's nearly 12 at night and I'm very tired but here we go.

Internally, Kaneki screamed. Shit, shit shit! He didn’t want Hide to know! Touka had just made this very, very bad. He was going to spew out some half-assed lie about meeting Touka by chance and … well, he would’ve figured it out. But if Hide knew, he wouldn’t be safe, he’d get roped into some G.H.O.U.L scheme and die and it would all be Kaneki’s fault! How would he keep Hide from being lunch for his … colleagues? His mind was whirling, one fear upon another, and, another, and another, and another, and -

“Whoa, hey, Kaneki,” Hide said, standing up and grabbing Kaneki’s arms. He noticed that he had been frantically pulling at his hair. Ah, maybe he shouldn’t do that. “Hey, don’t worry about it, man,” Hide smiled, “I’m just glad you’re okay. And maybe now you can be my running buddy since you’ve got that super strength thing going on and don’t have an excuse anymore, huh?” Kaneki snorted weakly.

“He doesn’t have super strength. Any ghoul worth a shit could kick his ass into next week,” she gave Kaneki a very pointed look, and he squirmed. “But running would probably be good for him, though once he’s strong enough to do any real missions it might not help that much.” Hide let go of Kaneki’s arms to push him onto the couch.

“Listen, Miss Gho-”

“My name is Touka. Don’t call me Miss Ghoul or I’ll eat you” Touka huffed, though it lacked any real threat.

“Okay, Touka, I’m in.” She started a little, and her brow furrowed, as if she was waiting for the punchline, but Hide wasn’t smiling. “I’m serious. This guy here’s my best friend” He pulled Kaneki into a one-armed hug, which was received stiffly, “And whatever the hell he’s just gotten into, I’m coming too.” Touka was trying to hold back her surprise, but Kaneki saw right through her. Unsurprisingly, being found out as a ghoul didn’t always go so well.

“Hey, shitty Kaneki” Touka said “This guy’s not kidding. You should take him up on his offer.”

“But what if-” She put up her hand, and Kaneki quickly bit his tongue.

“There’s always the chance that he could die a horrible, awful death, I know. But he can either be a part of this fucked up world alone, and be in constant danger from ghouls like every other human, or you can be a part of his life and protect him.” Kaneki looked down. He knew that she was right, of course, she knew this better than him. She’d been a ghoul her whole life, she’d come to terms with this world years before Kaneki even knew it existed. “Besides, if he runs to the CCG, we’re fucked.”

“Okay,” he said quietly. “Okay, Hide. You win, I’ll be your running buddy.” Hide punched the air, a huge grin across his face. He practically strangled Kaneki with the bear hug that came next.

“YES! Dude, we’re gonna kick some serious ass together.” He looked over at Touka and mouthed a ‘thank you’ over Kaneki’s shoulder.

“If you’re gonna help out, Hide, you’ll need a mask. The CCG can’t know who you are, or you’ll put yourself and Kaneki in danger.” She stood up and made her way to the hallway. “I’ll come around sometime tomorrow with Uta, so don’t go anywhere. See you later.” And just like that, Touka was gone, leaving Kaneki alone with his still quite upset best friend. Hide gently punched him on the arm,

“So Touka seems nice,” He said with a yawn.

“I guess.” Kaneki shrugged, “She’s only threatened to eat me like three times.” Hide laughed, but it was a far cry from his normal one that was bursting at the seams with joy.

“I really was worried about you, you know. I heard about the accident with Rize, but the nurses wouldn’t tell me anything. Probably because you weren’t even in the hospital, were you?” Kaneki hesitated and raised his hand to his chin. Hide sighed but continued, “You can tell me when you’re ready. Just remember that I’m on your team, okay?” Kaneki smiled at Hide, and felt some of the tension in his chest release.

“Thanks Hide.”

“No problem. You should go to bed, it’s late. But take a shower first, you stink!” Kaneki’s eyes widened, and he pulled up his shirt to give it a sniff. Hide -as usual- was right. He gave a small laugh,

“That’s fair. See you in the morning Hide,” Kaneki stood up, and his vision went slightly blurry. God was he worn out. Then he remembered his manners and turned around, “Hide, you should take the bed, you’re the guest.”

“No way, Kaneki! You’re gonna have to fight me for the couch, you were just turned into a ghoul, you know?” Hide dramatically flopped down, stretching out to take up as much of the couch as possible. Kaneki rolled his eyes,

“Don’t remind me. I’m too tired to push you off, so I’ll just get the couch early tomorrow and force you to take the bed.” He said, heading off to the shower as Hide blew a raspberry at him and turned off the light.

Kaneki took the longest, hottest, and best shower that he’d ever had in his life. He felt the week sliding off of him like oil and dirt, and he spent a good ten minutes just _being_ in the hot water. When he got out, he felt so much better than he had before. Everything else in the world felt as clean as he was, and although he was still worried about Hide, his anxieties had become much more manageable. Kaneki got into the softest pair of pajamas that he had, rubbed his hair dry with a towel, and fell into his bed -which compared to the hospital one felt like a cloud. By the time his eyes were closed, he was asleep.

 

_Rize was hovering by his shoulder, gently running her hands through his hair. Kaneki felt himself relax and lean into her touch. His mouth was filled with the taste of something sweet, and he felt full in a way that he hadn’t since the operation._

_“See, Kaneki,” she said quietly, “Being a ghoul isn’t all bad.” She trailed her fingers down his arm, and Kaneki looked down at his hands, only to find them covered in blood. His stomach turned, and he tried to let out a scream, but his mouth was full of sweet, sweet blood as well. The sweetness turned pungent, as if there was a week old corpse caught in his teeth. He was choking and tried to get up, but Rize’s gentle hands held him firmly down. “Shhhh,” she cooed,  “You can’t let all that meat go to waste.” Kaneki followed her gaze. Hide’s dull brown eyes stared back at him, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He pulled away from Rize, and felt himself falling, falling, falling._

_He landed in his mother’s grip instead of Rize’s. He was so hungry, he heard his stomach gurgle. His mother reached out with her free hand, and expressionlessly ripped through his body, starting from the bottom of his rib cage to his belly button. She said something to him, but he couldn’t hear her. He was entirely defenseless as she created a hole in him, and yet, strangely, the smallest part of him was glad to see her again, even if he knew he should loathe it. She pressed her bloody hand to his cheek, and Kaneki felt it drip down his chin when she drew away._

_It smelled so much like carnage, like rotting flowers, like_

_Coffee?_

Kaneki woke with a start to the smell of coffee and the gentle clink of a cup hitting the counter.  It was raining outside, and all he briefly thought of Touka arriving soaking wet and looking like a drowned rat. He hoped she wasn’t a mind reader as well as a ghoul, or she’d kick his ass for that one. Kaneki sat up groggily, head spinning. What rest could do, he felt two days dead instead of three. He shuffled to the tiny kitchenette, where Hide was sipping coffee with an incredibly messy bedhead. The clock read twelve, and his stomach growled. Lunchtime.

“Good morning, sleepyhead” Hide slurred, taking a huge gulp of his drink, which also appeared to have copious amounts of sugar (if the empty bowl was any indication).

“Morning” Kaneki answered, pouring himself a cup with the mug that Hide had out for him.

“I’m gonna warn you, it’s pretty shitty coffee. But it’s strong,” Hide said, finishing off his mug.

“I just want the caffeine to hit me like a fucking bus.”

“Fair enough” Hide said with a shrug, taking the pot from Kaneki and pouring himself another cup. “Where’s your sugar?” Kaneki pointed, and damn, was Hide right about the coffee being shitty. He pulled a face, but chugged it. He and Hide had finished off the pot before he started feeling the effects of the caffeine.

 _Thank God,_ He thought _Maybe I’ll actually be able to make it through the day now._

He and Hide barely had enough time to get dressed before the doorbell rung. Kaneki answered it to find Touka -who had somehow been roped into carrying the mask-maker’s bag- and the mask-maker himself. Uta.

Uta was very strange, heavily tattooed, wearing all black, and sunglasses despite the lack of sun. When Kaneki invited them in and Uta took off the glasses, he realized why. His kakugan was proudly flashing, just like it had been the first time that they met. Kaneki had assumed it was just to intimidate him, but he suspected that it really was just Uta’s thing.

Touka was quick to drop the bag and flop down on the couch next to Hide. Uta strolled in, picking up his bag without a change of pace. Something about him screamed excitement, and Kaneki was briefly worried about how he’d act around Hide.  

“You must be Hideyoshi Nagachika,” He said, “Hello, I’m Uta. The mask-maker.”

“Yep, that’s me!” Hide said cheerfully, “Nice to meet you!”

“What lovely eyes you have, Mr. Nagachika. I wonder how they’d look on a platter.” Uta said, in the same tone that he had used to introduce himself.

“Thank you, Uta. I always wondered what the world looked like from a plate. Also, please call me Hide.” A wry smile slipped across Uta’s face.

“Oh, I like you. No one ever reacts so well to stuff like that,” He said, sitting on Kaneki’s coffee table, right in front of Hide. Kaneki let go of the breath he’d been holding. This whole ghoul thing was already shaving years off his life. He closed the door and went back to the living room, eager to curl up in his chair with a book.

“This is the guy who just found out his best friend got turned into a ghoul and then offered to help him without a second’s thought.” Touka said, rolling her eyes slightly.

“Interesting…” Uta muttered. “I’ve never had a human customer who was so ready to accept us ghouls. What kind of mask were you thinking about? Full, half, less or more?” He opened up his bag, and Kaneki half expected to see something awful, but it was just stuffed with ordinary art supplies.

Uta seemed to take ages and ages with Hide, asking him strange questions about everything from his favorite type of car to how he wanted to die. Kaneki didn’t remember being asked so much, and he suspected that Uta was really just curious about Hide, and wasn’t going to use the information to create the mask like he’d claimed. Eventually he left after tucking several notes and sketches back into his bag.

“Hey Kaneki, put on some clothes you don’t like that much. You too, Hide,” Touka said

“Why?” Kaneki asked, looking up from his book.

“We gonna go do some super secret ghoul-spy things? A little 007?” Asked Hide, jumping up and pretending to shoot the tv with his fingers.

“If you count training in the sewers ‘super secret ghoul-spy things’ then yea.” Touka said, pulling up her hood. Hide stopped with the finger-guns,

“That's kinda gross, actually.”

“Tough shit. If you wanna be a part of the team you gotta learn how to protect yourself so we don’t have to.” Touka shrugged. “I’m not gonna pull your ass out of the fire because you didn’t take a minute to do a few pushups.”

 

“This is NOT a few pushups!” Hide said, flopping on the cool concrete. Somehow the sewer wasn’t even as gross as Kaneki expected. It was more like a huge underground cavern, it didn’t even have any open pipes or streams of dirty water, though there were a few puddles. And lots of curious rats. Touka kicked Hide in the ribs, scooting him a few feet.

“Get up, you can’t stop just because you’re tired.” She said, turning on Kaneki, who had stopped as well. “Keep going, Kaneki.” He quickly pushed off the ground. “That is the worst pushup I’ve ever seen, you’re not doing yoga. Straighten your back. Ninety degree angle in your elbow.”

“Aw come on,” Hide moaned, rolling onto his back. “Let us have a break, Touka. You’re not going to whip us into shape in one day.” Touka leaned down and pulled him up, then grabbed his side and leg and hoisted him into the air above her head. Hide shrieked, “Holy shit, what is with you ghouls and tossing poor little humans around!” Kaneki stood up quickly, holding his hands out to Touka.

“Can you put him down, please?” He asked.

“Only if you can hold him like this for a minute. I’ll give you a break if you can do it.”

“I’m doomed” Hide threw his hands up dramatically, but Touka didn’t even sway. “I guess I’ll just have to stay in your arms forever, Touka. A fate worse than death!”

“Shut up or I’ll eat you,” Touka said, jumping a little to jostle Hide.

“You always say that!”

“Okay you two, please stop. I’ll try and hold him.” Kaneki said, he was so tired, but Touka was a goddamn good personal trainer.

 _I won’t even be able to use my arms tomorrow,_ He thought, as Touka let Hide down.

She’d made it look easy to pick Hide up, it took Kaneki three tries to even get him above his head. Of course, Hide couldn’t keep his comments to himself.

“I’m not a weight, Touka, you can’t just benchpress me whenever you need something heavy.”

“Come on Kaneki, if you can carry all those nerd books you can pick me up.”

And when Kaneki finally lifted him,

“Oh, my savior! Rescuing me from the clutches of the fearsome ghoul!”

“Hide, you are much heavier than you look,” Kaneki huffed, his arms were shaking fifteen seconds in. He briefly contemplated resting Hide on his head, but Touka would probably punt him into the sun if he even moved his arms down a centimeter.

“It’s all this pure muscle,” Hide flexed, and Kaneki stumbled.

“Hide!”

“Sorry, man! I’d rather not end up with a mouthful of dirty water and rat poop. I’ll stay still.” And he went as rigid as a board. Kaneki tried to not hold his breath and shook and turned red until Touka called time.

“Okay, you can put him down now.” Touka said. Kaneki practically dropped Hide, he set him down so fast.

“Kaneki were you trying to break the sound barrier? Because I think you did. Also I think you gave me a heart attack.” Hide said dramatically, stretching out on the ground as Kaneki tried to catch his breath.

“RIP” Touka said crossing her arms and sitting down. “You can have a ten minute break.” Hide took the opportunity to spring up, run to their small pile of backpacks, and chug down one of the bottles of water that they’d brought. “Hey, stupid Hide, slow down or you’ll make yourself sick,” Touka scolded. Then, she went entirely rigid and stood up quickly.

She dragged Kaneki and Hide over to the wall, with only light protesting. Once they saw her serious expression, they quickly bit their tongues. If something had Touka spooked, it was something to be afraid of. She pointed down the cavern to a dark tunnel leading to god knew where, and did a small walking motion with her fingers. Footsteps. Kaneki could hear them too; light, and far too quick to be a human. He felt his heart leap, and he heard Hide’s do the same. Another ghoul was coming straight at them.

The ghoul burst from the tunnel, face obscured by a mask, and the mask obscured by a green hoodie. It wasted no time in going straight for the three of them, huddled by the wall. Touka threw Hide and Kaneki to the side, where they landed in a way that would definitely leave bruises. Touka’s kagune erupted from her shoulder and she ran towards the other ghoul. She moved so quickly that Kaneki couldn’t follow her, but he did see the way that cuts just seemed to appear on the other ghoul as they passed each other. Kaneki remembered something that Devil Ape -Koma- had told him about the kagune types. Touka was an ukaku, which meant she had to finish the fight quick, or they were done for. The other ghoul hadn’t released their kagune yet, but their lack of speed meant they weren’t like Touka. They weren’t doing much to hit her or dodge her attacks, but instead moved back towards the tunnel. It looked like Touka was winning. But Kaneki could see how tired she was, she was getting sloppy, landing fewer blows in important spots, shallower cuts. Something wasn’t sitting right with him, what was this ghoul’s plan? But before he could figure it out, Hide shouted,

“Touka, he’s luring you!” Just in time for the other ghoul to take advantage of Touka’s exhaustion. They lept up, blocked her half-hearted punch, and punted her far into the tunnel. Kaneki was sure he heard something snap as she landed, several seconds later, and rolled further still. Then, the ghoul turned on them, Kaneki grabbed Hide’s wrist and ran, but the other ghoul cut them off and sent another kick, straight to Kaneki’s arm. He screamed and let go of Hide as he felt the bone break. The ghoul grabbed Hide by the throat and slammed him against the wall with one hand. Hide spluttered, kicking his feet blindly at the ghoul. If he managed to hit them, they showed no response. Kaneki cradled his broken arm, and choked out Hide’s name, but his vision was blurring and he realized it was because he was crying. His left eye was itching like hell, and when he went to wipe his tears away, he felt the same veins that he had when he’d woken up in the hospital. He started to hobble towards the ghoul and Hide, but then the ghoul released their kagune. A blue bikaku tail. It wrapped once around their leg and gracefully swept up towards Hide. Before it could reach him, Kaneki let out a feral screech and his kagune ripped painfully from his back. His arm grew hot as the bone and muscle repaired itself quickly, and he began to run towards Hide and the ghoul.

Kaneki used his kagune to tackle the other ghoul, sending them flying nine meters, where they landed on their feet and began their attack again. They dodged every hit that Kaneki sent, and when they got close enough to him, they jumped, spun around and used their momentum to kick Kaneki in the chest. He fell back, hitting his head on the hard concrete floor. The other ghoul nearly strutted up, and stomped on his stomach, knocking all the wind out of him. Kaneki made an awful snarling gasp, grabbing onto the leg of his attacker and throwing it off of him. They stumbled slightly, just enough time for Kaneki to get up and impale them with all four limbs of his kagune. The ghoul seemed surprised, to say the least, and coughed up what sounded and smelled like blood onto the inside of their mask. Kaneki drew back and _threw_ himself at the ghoul, slamming them into the ground. He started hitting them, and the mask flew off.

Nishiki Nishio stared back up at him, looking like shit.

“Hey Kankei,” He rasped, and Kaneki wasted no time in punching him again. He didn’t care who it was. He was far too gone in his anger and hunger. He grabbed Nishiki by the collar and whipped him across the cavern. He hit the opposite wall with a sickening crunch, and was barely on his knees when Kaneki stabbed him again with his kagune, and again, and again, and again, and again, and….

“Hey! Shitty Kaneki!” Touka yelled, coming out of the tunnel covered in grime, white as a sheet, and sporting a leg that was bent the wrong way. She was leaning heavily on the wall and breathing unevenly. “If you kill him I’m making you do all of his paperwork!” When Kaneki didn’t move, she sighed and fell more than sat down, legs outstretched in front of her. She pulled her damaged leg back into place with a sickening squelch and muttered ‘good enough’ before getting up slowly. It seemed to take her ages to limp over Kaneki and Nishiki, who were frozen. As she got closer, Kaneki dropped Nishiki and backed away. “Kaneki, quit it. Come here.” She hissed through clenched teeth. He only shook his head in response, eyes darting over to Hide, who was lying very still. He tried to hide it, but Touka saw his mouth water.

 _Shit,_ she thought. Before he could turn back to face her, she’d run right past him, taking a bite out of his shoulder as she went. She wouldn’t be able to keep him from Hide and Nishiki with her bad leg. Ghoul tasted awful, but she held her nose and swallowed. Kaneki swore at her and clenched his wound, but she already felt her muscles knitting back together.

“Shut up, you bastard, I’m trying to help you.” She darted towards him, “You’ll regret it if you eat Hide, you know.” Touka feigned a kick to Kaneki’s ribs, ducked down and swept his legs out from under him. He might’ve been strong enough to kick Nishiki’s ass, but his fighting skills were worse than a child’s. She picked him up by his throat and cracked his head against the wall, “Black out, black out, black out, black out!” Touka muttered as he struggled against her. His kagune dissipated as his air was cut off, and eventually, he fell limp. Her fingers unclenched as if on autopilot, and he dropped to the ground in a heap. Shifting her weight to her good leg, Touka took a look around her at the various scattered bodies. At least Nishiki was conscious enough to be moaning about it. Oh boy, was she going to kill him. This would take forever to clean up. Touka limped over to their stuff, pulling her phone out of her (thankfully, untouched) backpack and dialling.

“Hey, I’m gonna have to ask a huge favor…”


	4. Connecting to Server

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the manager, clean up Nishiki's mess, etc. Fun times!

The line for coffee was just too long, so long that Amon accidentally spaced out. When Mado said his name, he was jolted back into the present.

“I’m sorry sir, what were you saying?” He gave his head a small shake and turned to look down at his mentor and partner.

“Number 745’s kagune. I just need that one and I’ll have the whole set.” Mado grinned and patted the briefcase he was holding. Around the office, Mado was well known for having an excess of quinques, and also having a special curiosity for them. While Amon understood the necessity of the quinques, having quite so many just didn’t seem … right.

“Number 745?” Amon asked. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Why did Mado have to use the ghoul’s numbers? No one could remember it, that’s why they gave the damn things aliases! Amon sighed quietly, slightly irritated. Boy, did he need his coffee if this insignificant Mado-ism was getting to him.

“The daughter ghoul, the family name is Fueguchi...” He trailed off, looking towards the menu. Amon remembered the Fueguchis. A mother, father, and daughter, and Mado had quinques made from the parents. So he was looking to expand his collection again? He nodded at Mado as they stepped forwards to order.

“The only problem,” Mado said once they were outside, clutching their caffeinated ambrosia (at least Amon felt so relieved to have the coffee) “Is that 745 hasn’t surfaced recently. It’s been playing it safe, which means it must have something planned.” He laughed, and Amon couldn’t help but notice the malice in it. “Oh my, it’s going to be fascinating when it does show itself.”

They walked into the 20th ward’s headquarters, where they’d been given temporary offices. They had only been sent to the 20th ward once before, for the Fueguchis, but the Binge Eater was the focus of their most recent trip. Amon had to admit that he was slightly pissed off, since almost as soon as they’d arrived, the Binge Eater attacks stopped. He felt like they were off on a wild goose chase, but Mado said that he had a gut feeling something strange was happening. Despite their differences, Amon couldn’t help but admire and respect Mado, so he took his mentor’s word for it. And although the Binge Eater had been fasting they had found some information about an accident at a construction site. Two students had been caught up in the accident, one dead, and the other missing - and nameless. There were secretions that the agents believed were from kagune, but the labs were still running tests. Amon found it tragic, to see youth snuffed out by steel beams, or possibly, by itself.

He really hoped that it was the steel beams because he was -quite frankly- sick of the 20th ward. Mado had attempted to stuff as many quinques as possible into their cramped office on the second floor with a lovely view of the parking lot. At the very least they had a small balcony, presumably for smoking, though neither of them had ever touched a cigarette. Mado had made some excuse about wanting to be prepared as he stacked the quinques against the wall but Amon thought it was more likely that he was just paranoid. About what, he had no clue. They had hardly booted up their computers when some poor intern knocked on the doorframe, breathing heavily.

“The lab results came back for the construction accident. I was told to get these to you as soon as possible,” She said, stepping in and handing the file to Mado before bowing and exiting. Mado quickly flicked through it, his grin growing wider and wider with each page.

“What is it?” Amon asked, standing up and looking over Mado’s shoulder.

“My hunch was right after all, Amon!” He laughed, handing over the file. “There was ghoul involvement, and better yet, they confirmed that it was Binge Eater! Oh boy, do we have work to do.” Amon skimmed through the graphs and charts, reading about levels of RC cells, blood, the DNA left at the scene. He wasn’t a scientist by any means, but even if he had been, it was still a lot of data to process, over seven pages worth.

“So what do we do with this?” Amon asked, looking up at Mado who was hastily typing something into his report.

“You’re a smart boy, Amon.” He replied without looking up, “You tell me.” Amon thought for a minute, then it came to him.

“The doctor, the doctor who saw to the victims. He works at the hospital a little ways away.”

“Good job, let's go visit him. That is, if he hasn’t bolted already.” Mado replied, hitting enter and standing up. “Although it would take longer to locate him if he has, I can’t say that I wouldn’t enjoy the challenge.”

  


Kaneki woke up to more beige. He was starting to hate that color, and waking up in unfamiliar beds. After a moment or two to take in his surroundings, Kaneki realized that he was in his quarters at the G.H.O.U.L facility. He sat up, and wondered if he should be worried that he could feel and hear his pulse in his head. A change of clothes were at the foot of his bed, and when he glanced at what he was wearing he saw that it was covered in blood. Ah, a change of clothes might be more than welcome then. Looking around, he saw his key taped to the door with a note.

_Hey shitty Kaneki,_

_You kinda went off your rocker and kicked Nishiki’s ass. Good job on that one. Anyways, everyone else is totally fine. Hide’s at your place, Nishiki’s with Kanou (but when he wakes up he’ll go sulk in his room), and I’m next door. You refused to eat even though the manager tried his best to get you to. When you’re up come get me and I’ll take you to him, since he’s dying to meet you. Don’t forget to lock the door behind you,_

_-Touka_

She’d drawn a small rabbit face at the bottom, and made a doodle of Nishiki crying. Kaneki didn’t really find it funny, but he took the key and note off anyways and went next door. He didn’t forget to lock the door behind him. Knocking on the door took so much out of him that Kaneki briefly contemplated going back to sleep, but he managed to stay standing until Touka answered.

“Hey shitty Kaneki,” She said, though without her usual mocking tone. She just sounded tired, and Kaneki couldn’t help but ask,

“Are you alright, Touka?”

“I’m fine, mother. Let's go see the manager.” Touka huffed, rolling her eyes.

The walk to the managers was nearly silent, only broken by Touka’s slightly uneven breathing and her foot barely scraping the floor. She was hurt, but Kaneki knew that if he mentioned it, she’d just get upset with him, so he kept his mouth shut. He knew that it was Nishiki’s fault for kicking her down the sewer pipe, but since he didn’t remember jack shit about what happened, he guessed that he had something to do with it too. But as they walked through the maze of the facility, Kaneki found his own anxiety about the manager rising. Sure, his whole team seemed to like him, but Kaneki didn’t have much confidence in their decision making skills, given the recent failure with Nishiki. What had he even been trying to accomplish? Since they were moving so slowly, Kaneki had plenty of time to work himself up about the manager. He had worried his bottom lip raw before they’d even gone through the door.

A little bell chimed, and Kaneki walked right into a wall of coffee. Well, the smell of coffee. Delicious, mouth watering coffee. The whole room was set up like a cute little café he might’ve wandered into before the accident. There were a few people scattered around, sitting quietly at their tables and drinking their coffee. Kaneki was surprised to see an older man with two small children, all of them with large mugs and pouring over a file. Although the younger girl seemed more interested in her coloring book than the papers spread across the table. He looked around to see other children, though none younger than the little one coloring. All of them were enjoying their own cups of coffee, and accompanied by some sort of chaperone. A small group of pre-teen girls were huddled in the corner, giggling amongst themselves. It was hard to believe that every last person in the shop was a ghoul. A ravenous, man-eating ghoul. Kaneki felt his heart start beating just a little bit faster, and he finally looked towards the bar.

“Yo Koma, where’s the manager?” Touka asked, sitting down at one of the stools in front of Koma, who had been wiping down a glass.

“He’s upstairs, I can get him if you and your boyfriend promise not to cause any trouble.” Koma said with a wink, drying his hands on his apron. Touka pulled a face at him, and Kaneki knew he had turned beet red.

“I’m gonna cause trouble now, asshole,” She said “Just because of that comment.” He laughed and walked towards a small and unassuming door that Kaneki hadn’t even noticed until Koma opened it.

“Language, Touka. There are kids here!” Koma teased, leaving a very pink Kaneki and a very agitated Touka.

“You gonna stand there all day?” She sighed, making streaks on the lacquered surface of the bar. Kaneki sat down so fast that he almost fell out of his stool. “Don’t be so damn nervous, the Manager’s a good guy. I mean, you did punch him in the face like twelve times when he was trying to get you to eat, but hey, no hard feelings. Probably.”

“What!” Kaneki gasped

 _I haven’t even really met him and I’ve already fucked up!_ He thought, resting his head on the bar. Boy, this week was putting him through the wringer.

“I’m kidding, jeez. You put up more of a fight than that. There’s no way you hurt him at all though, the Manager’s one of the strongest ghouls in the facility. And he’s not just a bragger like Koma, he’d never even admit it. But he could take our whole squad down without even trying, so if I were you, I wouldn’t worry about how much you didn’t want to eat.” Touka said. “And stop moping, he’ll be here any second.”

“Touka” Kaneki mumbled into the bar, “You just made me worried more about how strong this Manager is. Please do not become a therapist.” She actually laughed at that.

“Got it, I guess I’ll have to return all of my psych books to the library.” Kaneki started to smile and sat up. He took a deep breath, how bad could this be?

 

 

Well, it wasn’t _bad_ , but it could certainly be better. The Manager was the very kind man that his squad made him out to be, but he did make Kaneki eat human food. Disgusting human food.

Rice was like eating paper and glue, fruit tasted rotten and burned like alcohol, bread was styrofoam, milk like curdled cheese, and meat was the worst of all - foul in taste and texture - and Kaneki had thrown it all up into the trashcan, eyes and nose streaming. His heart had leapt up into his throat with the contents of his stomach and was now pounding against his tonsils and teeth as he gasped for breath.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Kaneki” The Manager said, offering a napkin and a small glass of water. “I just wanted to check the extent of your … transformation. I wanted to make sure that you were not giving up your spot in the human world, for a spot in this one.” Kaneki gratefully took the napkin and water, rinsed out his mouth and wiped his face clean.

“N-no sir. I-it’s fine,” He said, sitting down and accepting the cup of coffee that Touka handed him. But he had to set it down to keep it from sloshing everywhere. He was shaking horribly from the stress of vomiting, and from the knowledge that he couldn’t go back to the way he was before. He had been holding out, hoping that somehow, he wasn’t any different. That the whole thing was an elaborate joke, or dream, and he’d wake up one day and go to school with Hide and be obnoxious, ignorant college students. But he’d reached the end of the line. He really was a ghoul, a flesh-eating monster. He was a ghoul, and he worked for his namesake, assassinating, stealing, and causing chaos for his city. He was a ghoul, and thanks to that, he’d never be able to return to his safe life as a human. Kaneki started as a gentle hand was pressed to his back, and his rapid breathing hitched a little. Oh, had he been crying?

The Manager handed him a tissue wordlessly, and patted him on the shoulder before moving sitting down. He looked at Kaneki over the small table overflowing with human food that neither of them could ever eat.

“I understand that this must be a … difficult transition for you, Mr. Kaneki.” The Manager began, “No one has ever been in your position before, to be unwillingly turned into a ghoul. Nor has anyone reached maturity so quickly, it must have been a very unpleasant transition. I am truly sorry for this whole ordeal.” Kaneki dried his eyes and tried very hard to control his breathing and not look at the tainted feast in front of him.

“Thank you, sir. Though it’s not your fault, you don’t have to apologize.” He said, and he saw Touka roll her eyes from behind the manager.

“I must claim some responsibility, I do work here after all.” The Manager said, “Although the man most directly responsible has already talked to you.”  
“Really?” Kaneki asked, confused. The only one who had explained anything to him had been Koma, but he obviously wasn’t the one who had turned him into a ghoul.

“Duh, Kaneki. The doctor who came in to see you? Kanou?” Touka said. She opened her mouth again to chastise him some more, but the Manager put up his hand and she closed it, looking away.

“Oh” He said quietly, “He didn’t really talk to me much, he just sent in Koma to tell me everything.”

“That bastard!” Touka’s brow furrowed, “This time I’m going to kick his ass for real! He can’t just make his little science projects and then leave them out to dry!” The Manager sighed gently, as if this was a usual occurrence.

“You know you can’t lay a hand on him, Touka.” He said, “For one, Eto will have you recycled, and two, we’ve talked about this. Temper.” His words were not harsh, just those of a slightly tired parent of a troublemaking child. Kaneki guessed that Touka actually did get in her fair share of fights, that it wasn’t just talk after all.

The Manager ended up offering him a part-time job at the coffee shop, a small bag filled with brown sugar cubes (which he warned only curbed hunger, and didn’t cure it), and a package of meat. The only one that Kaneki denied was the meat, although his stomach growled at the thought of a meal, but nevertheless, he handed it back to the manager. Touka seemed especially agitated by that, and when they were walking back to their quarters to drop off the sugar cubes, he found out why.

“Listen Kaneki, I know this is all very difficult for you and shit, but you’re going to eat eventually. I will not have you dragging the team down because you won’t take care of yourself.” He started to say something to defend himself, but she cut him off. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. The Manager didn’t force you to eat because he felt bad, but I won’t. You are going to eat, or I’m going to make you. But if you want to see how horrible a ghoul’s hunger gets first, I won’t stop you. Maybe it’ll make it easier to feed when the time comes.” They were at his door and he was at a loss for words. Turning the key in the lock seemed to take ages, and the two steps to set down the sugar cubes was as long as a mile. Although the Manager gave him a coffee with a cube in it, Kaneki still didn’t feel satisfied (though he had to admit it was much better than before). It looked like Touka was right, again, about this ghoul business. Unsurprising. But she must’ve felt like her words were slightly too harsh, because she didn’t scold him as they walked down to the work room.

Hinami was sitting alone, typing and bobbing her head slightly to whatever music she was listening to through her headphones. She looked up as they walked in and smiled.

“Hello! How are you guys?” She asked, fiddling with her phone and taking the headphones off. “I heard about what happened with Nishiki, are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine, but Nishiki won’t be when I’m through with him.” Touka grumbled, turning on her computer and collapsing into her chair. “Bastard snapped my leg, it hurts like a son of a bitch.” Hinami nodded sympathetically.

“Need painkillers?” She offered, reaching into one of her drawers and pulling out a huge jug of unmarked tablets.

“Yes please,” Touka said, eagerly accepting three and taking them without water before Kaneki could even question the safety of them. “Hinami, you are my savior. Remind me to thank you later with like five coffees or something.” Hinami only laughed, and Kaneki managed to crack a small grin.

 _These two are so close, there’s no way that they haven’t resorted to a weird system of paying back like Hide and I have._ He thought. Money meant practically nothing, debts were repaid in caffeine, medical supplies, and heartfelt gifts only. _Shit, Hide. I have to call him!_ Kaneki patted his pockets for his phone, but his hands only found his key.

“Hide, right?” Touka asked. She pulled out her phone and tossed it to him. “Here, I have his number too, you can use my phone. Yours is back at your apartment. I think.” Kaneki nodded and had already hit call before he could wonder if he even got a signal in the fucking sewer system. Apparently so, Hide picked up on the second ring.

“Touka? Is everything okay?” He asked, sounding tinny through the phone. Kaneki couldn’t help but notice that there was a rasp to his voice that had nothing to do with the shaky connection. Maybe having Touka speak with Nishiki wasn’t totally off the table.

“Hey Hide, it’s actually Kaneki, but yea, we’re fine.” Hide let out a huge breath on the other side.

“Thank god, man, I was so worried about you! How are you doing? Did Touka get you to eat?” Kaneki stalled for just a moment, but managed to reply before Hide could start talking again.

“I’m fine, and no, I didn’t eat. But, uh, this Manager guy made me these sugar cubes and they help? So I’m good for now. What about you, Nishiki didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No, I’m good. Just a little sore and super hydrated. I’ve had so much tea today, I think all the water in my body’s been replaced. I’m like a health-god ‘Neki, no disease can hurt me.” He said, and Kaneki laughed slightly.

“Hide, you eat instant ramen for breakfast and blacked out when you stood up once.” He could hear Hide’s insulted scoffing,

“In this case, instant ramen for breakfast is actually really good! Soup helps you get better!”

“Whatever you say Hide,” Touka called him over quietly, “Hey, I have to go, but I’ll be back up soon, okay? See you.”

“Bye, see you,” Hide said, and ended the call. Handing over Touka’s phone, Kaneki looked at what she was trying to show him.

It was a video camera feed from the 20th ward’s CCG office. He watched as two men, one old and hunched over, and a younger one who was very tall, entered a small room. They both carried briefcases, and wore suits.

“Doves,” Touka said, just as Kaneki asked

“Where’d you even get this footage?” The date was current, although it had clearly been recorded. A young woman sprinted down the hall, holding a file, and Touka hit the space key.

“We have connections. This is an underground organization, you know. We don’t have to worry about abiding by the law.” She said, zooming in on the corner of the file.

 _CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT LAB RESULTS_ was printed in bold letters across the top, so large that even the shitty camera could pick it up. Maybe it was for the old guy, who knew how good his eyesight was.

“They’re looking into your date with Rize,” Touka said, and Kaneki stiffened. Hinami came over and asked Touka to rewind a bit. When she caught sight of the two investigators, she sighed.

“That’s certainly Mado.”

“How can you be sure?” Kaneki asked, and Touka punched him on the arm. Hinami hesitated, but eventually said,

“I’ve … met him before. He’s not a pleasant man, if he found out about you, you’re in serious danger.” Touka pointed at the older one,

“That’s Mado. You and Hinami have to steal some of his quinques, and Nishiki and I have to kill him. But it looks like I’ll have to take him on myself. If he’s already looking into the accident, he’s much further ahead than we planned for. If he manages to connect you to Rize, then he might even find Hide. We have to get him before that, Hide can go to jail for aiding a ghoul, and you can be killed for being one.” The stakes were much higher than he’d expected, and Kaneki’s fears were renewed yet again.

“I guess I’ll have to make sure that Uta finishes your mask quickly. We can’t have you going in there without one, especially with all of those cameras. We can check in with him tomorrow, and you should talk with Hide over how he wants to go forwards with this. He said he was in, and now that we’ve lost Nishiki, we could use his help.” Touka continued, jotting something down on a scrap of paper and sticking it into her pocket. “It’s only like 11, but I’ll take you back to your apartment anyways so that you can discuss the mission with Hide.”

“Thanks Touka,” Kaneki said, “But you don’t have to, with your leg…”

“Don’t baby me, shitty Kaneki. I’ve had worse,” Touka said, pulling herself out of her chair stiffly. “Let’s go.”

 

 

Hide was resting on the couch when Kaneki and Touka arrived. He was fast asleep, with his phone in one hand and the TV remote in the other. Kaneki took the remote and plugged in Hide's phone before starting up the coffee maker. He looked back into the living room to see that Touka had started stacking pillows on top of Hide. He only woke up when she put one on his face.

“Ahhhh, the fuck?” He slurred, knocking off all the pillows and accidently punching the lamp next to the couch. Touka caught it deftly and turned it on.

“Hey Hide,” She said. “Your neck better?”

“Yea, it’s fine.” He said, waving her off, but as Kaneki came back in, he noticed the bruises. He was about to say something, but he remembered how much having his own bruises pointed out embarrassed him, so he kept his mouth shut.

“So we’ve moved the schedule up because the guy we’re targeting found out about Kaneki’s date with Rize.” Touka said shoving Hide’s legs up and sitting down on the couch. “So if you see a creepy fuck of an old man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, hide. Lock the door and put yourself in a closet or something, but don’t let him know you’re here.”  
“Why?” Hide asked, hoisting himself up.

“His name is Mado, and he’s our target. Touka has to kill him alone, and another teammate and I have to steal some of his weapons.”

“Sounds pretty straight forwards.”

“Yea,” Touka said. “Hey Kaneki, I just thought of a use for the quinques. Hide, how’d you like to have a kick-ass weapon?”


	5. Firewall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The troublemakers go looking for trouble.

“So let me get this straight” Hide said, finishing off his cup of coffee, “You want me to have an illegally acquired, dissected kagune to fight the CCG with?”

“Yea, basically. You’ll have to learn how to use it, and the CCG will know where you got it from, but I think you’ve covered the most important parts,” Touka said. “Kaneki, this coffee is shit. You better hope that the Manager can help you out with that.”

“Great!” Hide smiled, “Count me in again!” He lowered his voice and stage whispered to Kaneki, “And she’s right man, this coffee is like drinking hot dish water.”

“Sorry that my coffee making skills are sub-par, guys,” Kaneki said. “I guess I can just dump out your mugs then?” He stood up and made a grab for Touka’s cup, but before he could reach it, she smacked his face with her free hand and held him an arm’s length away while Hide laughed.

“Nice try, don’t take my caffeine away.”

“Then don’t complain, please!” A slightly muffled Kaneki replied, pulling away from Touka’s grip. “The coffee maker is like one year younger than me, it's just trying it’s best.”

“Dude, you got that thing in our first year of high school. No way its seventeen.” Hide said, standing and going over to the kitchen to get himself another cup. As he poured in half the bowl of sugar he added, “If it was that old it probably would’ve poisoned us by now. Death by coffee, the only way to go.” Touka made a disapproving snort and downed the rest of her mug.

“The way you keep drinking the stuff in the middle of the fucking night, I think you’ve got another week left. Don’t you have to go to class in the morning too?” She asked.

“It’s Saturday! No class for me!” Hide said, “Besides, you keep drinking coffee in the middle of the night too. And you’ve had at least a cup more than me, you hypocrite!” He said pointedly.

“I’m a ghoul,” Touka huffed, although she didn’t sound too disappointed. “I could have two whole pots of that shit and be totally fine.”

Kaneki rolled his eyes and took Touka’s mug to wash it out. She and Hide bickered the whole time he was cleaning up, though in their defense, they stopped long enough to ask him if he needed help several times. Finally they began to talk about the problem at hand: Mado.

“Your mask probably won’t be ready, Hide, since Uta hasn’t had enough time to finish it up. But if you have anything that could cover your face and probably wouldn't come off it would be fine.” Touka said, typing up a quick message in her phone. “I’m asking Hinami if she can go see how close to done it is, the little workaholic’s probably still going.”

“Great, I think I might have a mask from a skiing trip? I’d have to go back to my dorm to look for it though.”

It suddenly hit Kaneki that Hide had really paused his life for him. A wave of guilt washed over him, and he had to swallow the urge to apologize profusely. Had Hide even been home in the past week or so? Had he been going to classes? Did he have to make up any tests? Did his other buddies even know where he went? Kaneki had been so preoccupied about Hide’s new (and frankly, rather scary) role in the ghoul world that he had forgotten about his place in the human world. Touka interrupted him by announcing that Uta would be done with not one, but both of their masks by the end of the day. However, he refused to show Hinami how far he was, stating that it was a ‘surprise.’

And despite himself, Kaneki couldn’t help but be a little bit excited.

Touka left early in the morning, and Kaneki finally persuaded Hide to take the bed. It involved dragging a very heavy Hide off the couch and putting him in the bed as cautiously as possible while he was still asleep. Kaneki settled down on the couch and watched it grow light outside. He drifted in and out of consciousness, too awake to go to sleep, too tired to stay up. Every few minutes, his stomach would grumble, and he’d tighten his grip around his abdomen, willing it to be quiet.

Kaneki lay there, miserably, on his tired old couch, until he thought it was light enough to reasonably be up. He shuffled to his overflowing bookcase and trailed his fingers gently along the spines of the books. His favorites were wedged between the books he’d had to read for class, classics, recommendations, and even a few foreign novels. His copy of _The Black Goat’s Egg_ was lost in the accident with Rize, which he was actually quite upset about. Kaneki sighed, shoved the thoughts of Rize out of his mind, and pulled out _Dear Kafka_ , curling up in his chair and starting to read.

It was late afternoon when Hide woke up, Kaneki heard him spluttering indignantly and hastily throwing off the blankets before stumbling to the door.

“Kaneki Ken! What am I doing here?” He rasped, looking surprised at his own voice. He gingerly brought his hand up to his throat.

“Jeez Hide,” Kaneki said, closing his book and standing up, “Let’s get you some tea or something” Kaneki quickly walked to his kitchen and rummaged through his almost-bare cupboards for any tea. All he had was some cheap bagged stuff, but it was better than nothing. Hide didn’t have any smart comments, so Kaneki hurried to get the water in the kettle and put the bag in the cup. They sat in silence until the kettle began to whistle, and Kaneki nearly flew across the kitchen to pour in the water. He placed the mug in front of Hide, who muttered a ‘thanks.’

“I’m gonna go look for some cough drops or something, okay? I’ll be back in a minute,” Kaneki said, going to his bathroom and opening the cabinet. Dental hygiene, painkillers, nail clippers, a bottle of a probably expired medicine, and a small bag of cough drops. He grabbed them and went back to Hide, who was messing with the teabag absentmindedly. He took one gratefully, and within five minutes was scolding Kaneki about making him take the bed.

“Its your house, Kaneki! Also how did you even get me there without waking me up?”

“And you’re the injured guest!” Kaneki said softly, bringing his hand to his chin “I don’t know, I just asked you to move and you did. You’re kind of a heavy sleeper, you know? I bet I could ask you to write a play, you'd make a masterpiece and never even remember it.” Hide just sighed and took a sip of his tea.

“Well, it’s not too late to go running, you know.” He said, looking over at Kaneki expectantly. “You did say that you’d be my running buddy, and now that you’re super strong it should be a piece of cake.”

“Are you sure that you can run?” Kaneki asked. Frankly, he didn’t really want to go running, he was out of shape and worried that even with his new ghoul abilities he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Hide.

“I’m sure. If it makes you feel better, we can only do one mile,” He said, finishing off his tea and taking another cough drop.

 _Only one?_ Kaneki thought, _Shit._

Half a mile in, they were both wheezing and more shuffling than running.

 _At least Hide has an excuse,_ Kaneki thought, eyeing the highlighter yellow athletic turtleneck that his friend had chosen to wear. It covered most of the bruises, but Kaneki could still see some purple trailing just above the collar.

“Let's… take… abreak,” Hide huffed, coming to a stop and resting with his hands on his knees. Kaneki heard how his breath rattled, and simply offered up the bottle of water he had been carrying. Hide accepted it, singing his praises, and downed half of it in one go. A couple walked past them, and Kaneki could’ve sworn that they were carrying some sort of delicious take out, but when he turned to look, their hands were empty. His hunger turned to disgust, and he was more than willing to get going again once Hide had had his break.

The rest of the run was as slow going as the first half, and when they walked back to Kaneki’s apartment, Hide took two steps in and laid down on the cool floor of the entrance. Kaneki brought over two glasses of ice water and barely had enough time to sit down before Hide was telling him he had to stretch.

“Why do I have to stretch?” He asked “Didn’t we do that before we ran?”

“But your muscles are tightest after you run, Kaneki! When was the last time you took a physical education class?” Kaneki groaned and flopped down on his back. But before long Hide had seized his arms and was pulling them towards Kaneki’s feet. Kaneki’s knees kept popping back up and Hide would chastise him every time he’d break a stretch.

“Neki you have to hold it!” He’d cry, “You know when you take a rubber band and stretch it out? The same thing happens to you! If you keep pulling it back and forth, it’ll snap, but if you pull it slowly, it can properly stretch!”

After twenty minutes of being twisted like a pretzel, Hide finally let Kaneki stop. They each took a shower and managed to waste time until Touka texted.

_hey kaneki im coming ovr w uta he has the masks were like 5 mins away_

Kaneki told Hide that Uta was coming over in a few minutes, and texted back,

_ok thanks_

True to her word, Touka was at the door with the mask-maker in four minutes. She was dressed strangely, like she was ready to rob someone, with a small backpack thrown over her shoulder. Nevertheless, Kaneki let them in, and he had to admit that he was excited to see what Uta had made. The mask-maker presented each of them with a small, unassuming box.

“Go ahead and open them whenever you’re ready,” He said, “I just like to be there when someone sees their mask for the first time.”

Hide eagerly took the top off his box and pulled his mask out, holding it up with a low whistle. Kaneki’s first thought was that it was incredibly beautiful, and Hide put it on with a smile. The mask covered the upper half of his face, and was painted with heavy acrylics, like Van Gogh’s _Starry Night._ It was dark blue with stars gently swirling across it, and a quarter sized bright yellow-orange sun right in the middle of the forehead. Kaneki could smell the leather and paint from across the couch, and gave both Hide and Uta his compliments before anxiously turning to his own box. As soon as he opened it, the smell of the same leather hit him. He pulled out a black mask, with a toothy grin (or was it a grimace?) and an eyepatch that covered his right eye. Hide urged him to put it on, and he did so slowly.

The leather was cool against his skin, and it fit like a glove. Uta really did know what he was doing. The maskmaker grinned slightly, pleased with his work, stood up and adjusted Hide’s mask to sit straight on his face. Kaneki offered him some coffee, but he turned it down, and was gone before Kaneki could even really thank him.

“Look at you!” Touka said with a fake sniffle, “They grow up so fast!” Kaneki laughed quietly and started to undo the strap holding the mask to his head, but Touka stopped him. “Don’t you want to know what it looks like?” She asked. Hide had already skipped off to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror, and Kaneki could hear him talking to himself happily.

“I don’t want to interrupt Hide,” He smiled, but realized that Touka couldn’t see it.

“Go on, you should probably stop him before he’s addicted to it like some sort of parrot or something.” Kaneki shrugged, got up and walked to the bathroom, where Hide was chatting away with his reflection.

“Hey Neki!” He called, “So, is it like looking at a whole new person or what?”

“You’ll need a wig,” Touka yelled from the living room. “Blonde stands out too much!” Hide let out a gasp and went back, presumably to complain to Touka, and Kaneki took his chance to look in the mirror. Hide was right, he barely recognized himself. It was like looking at a stranger. He turned his head and the light caught something shiny between the rows of teeth - a zipper. Kaneki pulled the small tab at the side, and revealed his mouth. He gave himself a shaky smile, but it still didn’t look like him. Well, that was the point, wasn’t it? If the CCG could identify him as Kaneki Ken, he’d be dead and Hide’d be thrown in jail. He hastily zipped the mask back up as Hide came back.

“That mask’s a little scary, Kaneki,” He said quietly, and Kaneki knew that he wasn’t really joking. “I sure wouldn’t want to run into you in a dark alley!” Kaneki laughed, and the spell was broken.

It didn’t take long for Touka to call them into the living room. She had put on her own mask, a circular white rabbit. Her voice was slightly muffled, and Kaneki understood the point of her clothes. Dark, close enough to her body that they weren’t easy to grab - but not tight enough to betray her body shape, no words or identifying marks, shoes that let her move quietly, gloves to keep her fingerprints off of anything, and a long red wig.

“We’re gonna do some recon, get into some inconspicuous clothes. Hinami will meet us there. Hide, put on a hat or something. See what I’m wearing? You have to pass the Touka Fashion Test to walk out that door. I have shoes and gloves for you though, they’re G.H.O.U.L. issued.”

 _Damn,_ Kaneki thought, _I really only wear sweaters…_

But still, he went to his closet to find something, Hide on his heels.

“You know I only dress in bright colors,” He muttered, Kaneki nodded. Hide _did_ only have bright colors, the dullest Kaneki had ever seen was a blinding yellow. Eventually, he found some pants that weren’t jeans or pajama bottoms and were dark enough to pass the test. He gave Hide a black hoodie that could cover his hair, and found a loose, plain grey shirt for himself. They passed the ‘Touka Fashion Test’ and were lacing up the strange shoes that she’d brought. Since it was still light out, Touka made them wait until it became dark enough and then just a bit longer. They sat quietly, not one of them even attempted to start a conversation.

“Don’t bring your phones. If you lose it and they find it we’re fucked.” Touka finally said, as they crept out a window. Kaneki only carried his keys, which he’d pinned to the inside of his shirt. It made him feel oddly exposed to be without his wallet and phone.

The walk to the CCG office was terrifying every step of the way, and Kaneki considered turning back several times. He only reconsidered because if he left, he wouldn’t be able to protect Hide. They took back roads, alleys, and even a brief sprint across the top of an apartment building -though Kaneki suspected that that one was just for the hell of it. Finally, they stood on the property next to the office, and Kaneki broke the silence,

“Touka,” He whispered, and she turned towards him, her mask glowing eerily.

“Don’t use my name,” She whispered back. “I’m ‘Rabbit’ and you’re ‘Clueless.’” She pointed to Hide, “He’s ‘Loudmouth.’” Hide gasped dramatically, but said nothing.

“Do I really have to be ‘Clueless?’” Kaneki asked, “Never mind, do you even know what room they’re in?”

“Of course I do, stupid. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.” She sighed, and began to creep around the back, towards the parking lot. “Second floor. ‘Workaholic’ is already inside, she’s taking care of the security cameras. When she’s got them, she’s going to hold that one” Touka pointed at a camera overlooking the empty lot “Far to the left so we can sneak in.”

It took a few minutes, but eventually the camera pivoted first to the right, then to the left. Touka stood up.

“Time to go.”

It was a chore getting up to the second floor, Touka managed easily, but Kaneki and Hide had trouble even getting five feet off the ground.

“You know,” Hide groaned, “I never was able to do pull-ups in gym class.” He tried to swing his leg over the balcony, but missed and let out a string of curse words.

“Well you may want to do one now, or you’ll get tired and fall two stories to your death or a broken ass.” Touka said, leaning against the sliding glass door. Kaneki reached over the railing of the balcony and grabbed Hide’s arms to haul him up. Touka opened the door cautiously, it wasn’t locked.

“Some CCG office this is,” She muttered. “The Manager is really in charge of the 20th ward, I’m surprised that these people even have enough personnel to fill a building.” She moved into the office, careful to take light, high-kneed steps over the threshold. “Go look at the quinques, but don’t take any. We can’t have them knowing that we were here.” Kaneki and Hide slowly walked over to the stacked cases. “And don’t open any. Some quinques have special properties and might kill you if you don’t know how to use it. Just count them and see if they have labels or something” She added. Hide set the case that he was holding down very, very carefully, as if it would spring open and devour him whole.

Touka booted up a computer and inserted a disk and a flash drive. The computer opened up to the homescreen without a problem, and Touka began to sort through various files. She found relevant ones and began to copy them to the flash drive. She was still typing when there was a gentle tap at the door, and Kaneki’s heart lept into his throat. The tap was rhythmic though, and Touka answered the door to reveal Hinami in a simple black mask. Hinami took the same careful steps as Touka over the threshold and waved cheerfully at Kaneki. She moved over to the other computer and started it up like Touka had. They worked in silence, Touka and Hinami typing and clicking at the computers and Kaneki and Hide counting and checking for labels. Suddenly, Hinami froze. Touka looked over at her, and Hinami made the same walking motion that Touka had used in the sewers.

Someone was coming.

Touka and Hinami hurriedly pulled out the flash drives and disks, but before they could even shut off the computers, the door swung open. Kureo Mado flicked on the light, and all hell broke loose. Touka immediately flung herself at him, kagune ripping from her shoulder. Mado opened his briefcase and out spilled … spines. Kaneki rushed forwards to shove the flash drive and disk into the backpack before tossing it to Hide. Hinami stumbled at the sight of the spines, dropping to her knees. Kaneki heard Touka’s curse from across the room, and she called out,

“Yo Loudmouth! Get her out of here!” She met the quinque with her kagune, and pushed Mado back against the row of windows in the hallway. His quinque was obviously not suited for close combat, but he was making the best of it, cracking the spines like a whip. They bit into the drywall where Touka’s head had been moments before.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Hide muttered, grabbing Hinami and shoving her flash drive and disk into the backpack. They ran for the balcony, but Hinami stopped dead in her tracks as they passed the wall of quinques. She pulled out of Hide’s grip and began to tie the quinque cases together with zip-ties that she poured out of her pockets. Hide pulled the backpack on and began to help her.

“I said get out of here!” Touka yelled, blocking another hit from Mado. She moved back into the office, dodged the spines sent her way, but backed right into one of the desks. Hinami slung Hide over her shoulder, grabbed the tied cases, and they were gone over the edge. Kaneki was shaking, stuck in the middle from where he had thrown the backpack to Hide. What could he do? Touka was clearly losing steam, she was pacing herself more than in her fight with Nishiki, but Kaneki could see that she was getting tired. “Hey Clueless, I could use some help here,” She called, and Kaneki sprung into action without a second’s thought, glad to have a purpose.

He ran straight towards the two, wrapped his arms around Touka’s waist, and kept going- right over Mado. He bounced off the widows, cracking one of them with his side. He moved quickly to get out of the spine’s range, but not quickly enough. The quinque caught him in the left shoulder and he screamed as he and Touka fell down the hallway. Touka got up quickly, but Kaneki remained on the ground, clutching his shoulder and breathing heavily. Blood seeped through his shirt, over his fingers and into a rapidly growing puddle on the floor. Mado seemed surprised -to say the least- by Kaneki’s charge. But despite his age, Mado was quick, and he stood up and continued with his advance, walking forwards with a twisted smile. Before Kaneki could recover or even process his fear, Touka had yanked him up, grabbed his arm, and dragged him down the hall.

“The mission’s changed,” She said as they vaulted around a corner, Mado on their heels. “We can’t complete it without our shitty friend. Right now, our top priority is getting as far away from here as possible, understand?” She looked back at Kaneki, and despite her mask, Kaneki knew what kind of face she was making. It was full of fear.

“I understand,” He said, as they burst into a stairwell. Touka jumped over the railing and sailed down to the bottom, rolling as she landed, but Kaneki stopped short. He gripped the railing tightly, leaving bloody handprints.

“Jump, you idiot!” She yelled. The door opened behind him, and Kaneki turned. The most terrifying man in the world stared back at him. He walked like a predator who had just cornered its prey, his teeth bared in what could never pass as a grin. Somehow, his skeletal frame filled the doorway and Kaneki could see the bloodlust in his eyes. This man would think nothing more of his death than had he swatted away a fly on his way to work. As Mado raised his arm to strike, Kaneki closed his eyes and jumped.

He tried to roll like Touka, but he landed on his bad shoulder with a sickening crack. Two stories up, he heard Mado laugh and shout some horrible taunting phrase. But Touka was already yanking him to his feet again, half-carrying him through the doors, and down another hallway. They were moving slowly, Touka limping on her bad leg, Kaneki curled in on his left side. He hadn’t even thought about her injury, but now he saw that they should’ve waited. They stumbled every few steps, leaning heavily on each other. Mado would catch up quickly, and Touka knew it. Kaneki knew it. Mado knew it. Kaneki heard her heart pounding, felt his own doing the same, and clenched his injured shoulder tighter. They entered the lobby, Mado just a few meters behind them. They were very nearly in the clear, the door was right there…

But it was blocked. A man stood in front of it, back to the commotion behind him, though he turned quickly when Mado called his name.

“Amon!” He sang, “We have visitors!” Touka and Kaneki came to a halt, caught between the two men.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Kaneki and Touka said simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you all be interested in reading some 'deleted scenes?' They're not technically a part of the story, and some of them never even made it out of my head, but if you'd like to see them I'd be more than happy to post them


	6. Deleted File

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lmao a billion page fight scene ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Kaneki and Touka stood there, frozen except for their heaving chests, simply watching Amon. Mado stopped behind them, and Kaneki was glad that he couldn’t see the expression on the old man’s face (he was sure it would be less than pleasant). The man in front of them didn’t hesitate in opening his briefcase; a large, heavy, hammer -or was it a baton?- quinque that Kaneki instantly disliked sprang forth. He and Mado slowly moved forwards. Kaneki’s head was pounding, and he felt horribly dizzy, but when he looked over at Touka, he could practically feel the determination radiating off of her. 

_ Shit, _ he thought,  _ Even if I could get out of this, Touka’s gonna throw her stupid ass at these guys until they’re down or she is.  _

But her strong will wouldn’t get her very far without help, they were both nearing the end of their rope, leaning on each other just to stay upright. Blood still trickled down Kaneki’s broken shoulder, and a slowly but steadily growing dark stain was becoming more and more visible on Touka’s injured leg. But Mado and Amon seemed more than ready to jump into a fight, and it was an unsurprising swing from Mado that sent them into motion again. 

The spines whirled forwards, and Touka pushed Kaneki out of the way quickly, diving around the quinque and darting into Mado’s range, pushing off from her good leg. Kaneki squeaked to a halt practically at Amon’s feet, and scrambled up as the man brought his quinque to the floor, leaving a crater where Kaneki had been. Glancing over at Touka, Kaneki weighed his options as Amon circled him like a predator. He could help her or hold off Amon. The way that Mado and Touka were dancing around, so fast it made his headache worse by just looking at them, left him with stalling Amon. Kaneki had been in a total of three fights in his life, once where another kid started hitting him over something stupid (Kaneki hardly remembered anything about it besides the black eye he’d gotten), another that he only got involved in to get Hide out, and finally, his fight with Nishiki. He’d come out of all of them bruised (and on one occasion bloody), and he hadn’t exactly been paying attention for tips to hang onto for future fights. He’d been more preoccupied with making sure he didn’t hurt anyone.

But still he stood facing a highly trained CCG Investigator with a goddamn warhammer, without any experience, an injured shoulder, and a hell of a headache. Amon swung right at his middle, and Kaneki was forced to leap back instead of jumping or ducking. He spent a good thirty seconds just dodging a very frustrated Amon before the hammer finally caught him in his injured shoulder. It crumpled like paper against the blow and Kaneki swallowed a scream as he fell back. He scooted backwards, curled around his shoulder. Clammy hands wormed their way up his throat and his stomach heaved. Hastily he unzipped his mask and vomited bile on the ground, and while Amon did prepare for his next attack, he didn’t make a move to hit Kaneki while he was down. 

_ At least I was lucky enough to get the Investigator with a moral compass, _ He thought, shooting a glance at Touka, who had managed to push Mado back into the hallway where his movements were limited. She was still guarding her leg, but it was quite obviously hurting something bad. He could hear her labored breathing from across the room, but for the moment, she was winning.

Touka swung high with her kagune, then kicked low and sent Mado reeling back in the corridor, limiting his movements further. He snapped the spines up through the hall, crashing them into the ceiling. Touka had barely enough time to flatten herself to the wall before the quinque came sailing past her nose and buried itself above her. A chance opened up, as Mado took a second to yank the spines out, tearing drywall down in the process. Touka ran forwards, just in time to catch Mado in the shoulder with shards of her kagune. He let out a strangled yelp and said,

“I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much from you, Rabbit. I know you have blood on your hands, all of your kind does, but you keep a low profile because you aren’t strong enough to take on an Investigator in a fair fight.” Touka growled, and sent forth a volley of kicks that Mado blocked with ease, despite his injured shoulder.

“You’re the one who isn’t making this a fair fight, you bastard. I don’t remember insulting your opponent constantly as being a part of the fighting gentleman’s code of honor.” Mado let out a dry laugh and continued sweeping his quinque along the hall, forcing Touka to use most of her precious energy to dart around it instead of attacking. But he was slowing down, his injured shoulder finally seemed to kick in, and Touka had the opportunity to slam him on the floor, spread eagle. But Mado knew that she lacked the proper strength to cut him down, as she took the moment to gasp for breath and clutch at her leg.

Turning his attention back on Amon, Kaneki spat out most of the foul taste in his mouth and shakily got up. He zipped the mask slowly. 

“Why won’t you attack?” The man asked, eyebrows and mouth drawn into a sort of confused scowl. He pushed forwards, and Kaneki stumbled back right into the glass door leading outside. (It would be so easy to just open it an- no!) He shook his head and looked up at the Investigator. 

“Because…” It seemed to selfish to say ‘I don’t want to have you on my conscience’ so Kaneki settled with “I don’t want to hurt you.” He shot to the left when Amon attacked again, leaving a huge crack in the door. 

“That’s bullshit. You’re a ghoul, all you ever do is maim and kill and steal.” Amon hissed, jabbing at Kaneki and hitting him squarely in the ribs - though it lacked the force to do any real damage and only sent him flying a few feet to sprawl on his back. 

“In my defense” Kaneki wheezed quietly, “I am rather new at this.” The Investigator gave no signs of hearing him as he walked forwards, disgust clear on his face, and placed the flat end of his quinque on Kaneki’s chest. Kaneki writhed like a bug trapped under his thumb, arms scrabbling uselessly at the sheer sides of the weapon. 

“Pathetic. What kind of weak ghoul are you, anyways?” He sent a glance over at his partner and Touka, who had just gotten caught in the arm by the spines and leapt back as blood sprayed forwards. Mado took the chance to roll onto his knees, but was steadily pushing Touka into the entryway again. “Just trying to distract me so that I can’t help Mado. Your kind is so disgusting, no respect at all for this world.” The pressure on Kaneki’s chest increased and he gasped for air, “Everything wrong in this world, is because of yo-”

He was cut off as a dark blur slammed into him, knocking him back enough for Kaneki to throw the quinque off and lie there panting. 

“Sorry pal, I was just getting so tired of your monologuing.” He extended an arm to Kaneki, and boy oh boy, was he glad to see it was Hide. “Come on ‘Clueless,’ you just gonna let him talk to you like that?” Despite himself, Kaneki grinned as Hide pulled him up. He couldn’t help but notice that Hide was clutching a briefcase for dear life with his free hand.

“What are you doing here? And where’s ‘Workaholic?’” He asked as Amon got back up and retrieved his weapon.

“Well I couldn’t just leave you, could I? I didn’t do all those damn push ups for nothing.” He pointed over his shoulder, where Hinami had joined Touka against Mado. She darted in, despite the spines, and went around behind Mado to kick him forwards, creating the perfect gap for Touka to cleanly slice his hand off. The spines clattered to the ground, but the eerie smile didn’t leave Mado’s face for a second. “She’s right there, we got the goods stashed somewhere safe too.” Patting the briefcase he added, “And I had to show you this bastard.” Amon ran at them and Hide clicked the latch, out sprung an angry looking quinque that had settled on being somewhere between a staff and a sword, with a long sharp blade and a sturdy looking grip. The grip shone dully as if it was leather, but the rest of the quinque looked like it was made of embers. Reds, oranges, and yellows shifted and bubbled up, but its surface remained as smooth as glass. Hide stepped forwards to meet Amon with the staff held up to block his blow, and to Kaneki’s surprise, the thin middle didn’t snap on contact, although Hide did break his stance and went reeling back into Kaneki. Amon seemed just as surprised, and Kaneki took the opportunity to respond to what Hide had declared the ‘monologue.’

“You claim that everything that’s wrong in this world is because of ghouls, but did you forget that humans kill our-each other all the time, and not even for survival?” He asked, straightening up. His shoulder felt hot, he rolled it gingerly, and he thought he had heard some of the bones snap back into place. “Did you forget all the wars started by humans -sometimes for the most trivial reasons- all of the serial killers who were and are human? Have you picked up a history book or a newspaper in the past century or so,  _ Investigator _ ?” Kaneki heard his voice wavering, but he swallowed and tried to keep it steady. Amon frowned again and attacked again instead of answering, but it was sloppier in his apparent rage. He hadn’t expected Kaneki to even try to defend his actions - or to expose the actions of humans. Hide met it again, prepared for the force, and Kaneki rushed forwards, sliding and knocking Amon’s feet out from under him. The Investigator rolled up, and sent his quinque forwards again, at Hide, who scrambled to block. When the weapons met with a dull screech, Amon cracked a smile.

“I knew it. You’re no ghoul. You’re just a poser, which is almost as bad.” The smile slid right off and Amon pushed Hide away, turning back towards Kaneki. “I really hate those who pretend to be ghouls, it's a disgusting form of idolism,” He said to no one.

_ Fuck, _ Kaneki thought,  _ If he figures out who we are, Hide could go to jail. _ He was distracted by Hinami’s wail, and turned to see that Mado had pulled out another quinque, one with large, wing-like appendages that pinned Touka to a wall by piercing her abdomen. Kaneki could hear the blood hitting the inside of her mask from across the room. Hinami’s kagune tore from her back, and it clicked. Her kagune, and the quinques that Mado was using…  _ Her family _ . She lashed out with the spines, far less graceful than Mado, but more effective, and slashed him across the chest. His laugh died in his throat, but he wasn’t done yet. 

“Hey man, that’s pretty insulting. Comparing me to a human like that.” Hide called, pulling Kaneki’s attention back to his own fight. “Not everybody can be ripped like you!”

“You’re not my problem right now, kid.” Amon said, “Sit down before you hurt yourself. God, your paperwork is going to be a pain in the ass.” Over Amon’s shoulder, Hide just shrugged at Kaneki, quinque held loosely. There was nothing he could really do if the Investigator refused to engage with him -short of stabbing him in the back, which Kaneki knew Hide wouldn’t be able to come back from. So that left taking down Amon up to him. It would take a ghoul to keep Hide safe. Kaneki took a deep breath and launched himself at Amon, unzipping his mask as he did so. They collided heavily, and Kaneki sunk his teeth into the gap between Amon’s neck and shoulder. Fresh (delicious) blood flowed into his mouth (eat kill tear eateateat _ eat _ ). But he ignored the desire to bite down harder, and instead, unclenched his jaws and pushed away, feeling better than he had all damn week as he gulped down the blood eagerly. It streamed down his face and neck, and Kaneki licked it off of as much of his mouth as he could, leaving glistening red streaks.. His shoulder began to heat up again, and this time, Kaneki was sure of it, the bones completely fixed themselves and the muscle wove itself together again.

_ Thank you increased healing factor, _ He thought, running his tongue along the inside of his teeth. Unfortunately, he’d had to bite through the Investigator’s white coat as well, and pulled a small cottony mass out of his mouth, throwing it on the ground and releasing his kagune. He was done with this fight.

“The fuck!” Amon yelled as blood dripped down his arm. None of them moved, breathing heavily, while Kaneki and Hide watched Hinami take down Mado, Amon far too preoccupied with his arm. Blood had already soaked the front of Mado’s previously white coat, and he was moving slowly. Hinami ran forwards, slamming him into the wall, one hand around his throat, the other busy wrestling the quinque out of his grip. She had to pull off his stained glove, and with it, the quinque fell limply to the floor. Touka gasped as she yanked the point of one of the wings out of her side and tossed it down. Hinami was sobbing, muttering something to Mado that Kaneki couldn’t make out, and then, there was a soft (sickening) crack, and Mado crumpled. Hinami slid down with him, and was comforted by Touka, who had wrapped one of her arms around her side tightly. Taking the Investigator down had taken so much out of her as well. Her shoulder slumped, and tears ran freely down her face.

Amon barely had enough time to register that Kaneki was moving again, lashing out with his kagune and slicing the quinque into chunks. They clattered to the ground, denting the floor, and Amon sank with them, frozen, still clutching the staff of his shattered weapon, refusing to back down.

_ Give up already, you idiot. _ Kaneki thought. Amon’s head was bowed, he knew he had failed, but if he threw down his quinque, it was to truly admit failure. Without even knowing he was doing it, Kaneki walked forwards, shuffling his feet slightly. He stared down at Amon, at the open wound (the perfect meal), and was crouching down when a hand grabbed his shoulder gently. It was Hide, eyes wide and pleading, and full of fear. 

“Don’t do it, man,” Hide whispered, and Kaneki tilted his head. Do what? All he wanted to do was…

_ “ Eat _ _”_ cooed Rize’s voice in his ear. Startled, Kaneki whipped back up, making his head spin. Belatedly he noticed his kagune had turned like an awful claw on Amon, and that his mouth was watering. Tears leaked out of his eyes. He really was turning into a monster.

“Get out of here,” Kaneki rasped, falling to his knees to mimic Amon’s stance. His kagune was draining him of energy and it was all he could do to stay somewhat vertical. He released the tension in his back, and it slowly began to dissipate.

“No.” Came the reply.

“Please. I-I can’t stop. I’m just so hungry,” Kaneki breathed, hiccuping slightly. “Don’t turn me into a murderer.” Amon looked up, a puzzled expression on his face. But then his eyes met Kaneki’s, met the black sclera and red iris, the protruding veins (the eerie glowing, the mad itching, the desire to  _ yank _ it  _ out _ !), and his expression hardened again.

“An Investigator does not run from a fight,” Amon said, shaking his head like a small child.

“The fight’s over,” Touka called, though it was not gloatingly, “You lost. Better to admit it and escape with your life than to die like an idiot who didn’t know when to give up.” Amon reeled around to where she was crouched over Hinami and Mado’s body, and the Investigator stood up and sprinted towards them with a yell. Touka shifted her stance, ready to fight again despite the blood so obviously streaming down her leg, but Hinami tugged at her jacket, holding her back. The young girl got to her feet and stared at Amon blankly, her eyes still full of tears, and he slowed just a bit. Mercilessly, Hinami shot her kagune forwards and used it to slam Amon into the wall. He crashed down, unconscious, still grasping the staff of his quinque. Hinami let her kagune disappear, and walked over to him, propping him up into a sitting position near Mado. Then she went back to Touka and took her hand. 

Touka unwound her arm from her body and used it to hug Hinami closer, pulling her away from the mess. Hide had somehow wrangled his quinque back into the case, and then was helping a very uncooperative Kaneki to his feet.

“No Hide, I don’t want to bite you,” Kaneki said, struggling weakly against Hide, who had both arms hooked around Kaneki’s abdomen and was making his best attempt to get Kaneki standing.

“First of all, unless you also got turned part-owl and rotate your head a hundred and eighty degrees, that isn’t going to happen. Second, I have faith in you, what kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t, huh?”

“Hide, he’s right,” Touka interjected, “I wouldn’t get too close to him if I were you. His dumbass hasn’t eaten since he woke up and he needs to heal.”

“Thanks for those inspiring words,” Hide said as he managed to haul Kaneki to his feet. “Really, quite touching. But, I’m going to have to ignore you since we have to leave before the CCG kicks our asses.” Touka thought about arguing, but eventually huffed and said,

“Fine, but I’m not helping you if he gets the munchies.”

  
  


They ended up at Touka’s apartment, which was no incredibly  _ normal   _ that Kaneki found it hard to believe that it belonged to a ghoul. It was difficult getting four people into the bathroom, and then much easier once Touka had kicked Hide and Kaneki out to wait, although she kept their masks to wash them off.

“Listen, I’ve got some meat in the fridge. It’s got a false bottom and there’s a few packages down there. Eat one or I’ll shove it down your throat with the wrapper still on.” She said as she pushed them out the door. “And try to be neat about it. Blood shows up under a UV light and is a pain in the ass to clean up properly.”

So they sat at the table, the package laying innocently between them. Hide pushed it at Kaneki and Kaneki pushed it back despite the growling in his stomach.

“I’m not hungry,” he insisted, bringing his hand up to his chin and then resting it in his palm.

“Kaneki, you have to eat it,” Hide sighed. “I’m not going to act like a babysitter trying to get the kid to eat their veggies, I know you’re starving. I can hear-”

“I won’t eat it,” Kaneki said. “You don’t understand, Hide, if I eat it, I won’t be human anymore.”

“I hate to break it to you ‘Neki, but since when did humans have super-strength and kagune?” When Kaneki couldn’t answer, he continued, “Besides, I’d rather have you as a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater who felt halfway decent than a half-ghoul kidding himself and in pain. You eating this won’t make you any less human than me, what makes you human is like what you did for that Investigator.”

“Biting him?” Kaneki asked fearfully, raising his hands to tug at his hair. 

“No, dummy, telling him to go. And let go of your hair,” Hide reached across the table to pull Kaneki’s hands away from his head. “That man was fully expecting to die, but not only did you ask him to leave, you changed his mind for a minute. I notice things, Kaneki, and I saw the look on his face. You surprised him, I bet you a ghoul has never shown him mercy before. He’s gonna think about ghouls differently from now on, one way or another.” Hide said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair. 

“Okay Sherlock Holmes,” Kaneki said, tapping his fingers on the table. “I’m not sure about that last part, especially since the guy he was with … you know.... but I guess telling him to go was... decent.”

“Awesome! Now eat.” Hide said, shoving the package once again towards Kaneki, who accepted it and began to pluck at the brown paper wrapping. 

“Could you at least get me a plate?” Kaneki asked, and Hide laughed before getting up to bring over a dish and cutlery. 

Tentatively, Kaneki brought the fork up to his mouth, a tiny cube of meat speared on the end. It smelled incredible, but he still couldn’t help but be wary. He tugged it off and immediately praised and regretted his decision. Flavor burst into his mouth, better than any burger at Big Girl, and he hastily hacked off another piece, much larger this time. But that impulse to get  _ more _ scared him (and the soft, feminine laugh that he thought he heard even more so), and he wished that the food had never passed through his lips. The rest of the meat was scarfed down unceremoniously, and it was all Kaneki could do just to keep using the fork and knife and not resort to ripping off chunks using his hands and teeth. But he had to appear human, at least in front of Hide. A small, animalistic urge to steal away somewhere where no one could see him or take his food reared its ugly head, but Kaneki squashed it deep down and simply ate like a man on the brink of starvation - a human one.

Touka and Hinami emerged from the bathroom with a cloud of steam, dressed in fresh clothes and with dripping hair. Hinami’s eyes were ringed with red, and Kaneki gave his seat to her, having long since finished eating. 

“Did he?” Touka asked Hide, bustling around her kitchen for coffee making supplies.

“Yea, actually!” Hide said with a smile, and Touka simply nodded approvingly before continuing to prepare drinks. She sent Kaneki into the bathroom with a clean set of clothes, telling Hide that when he got covered in blood too he could have a turn. It took Kaneki five minutes to figure out how Touka’s goddamn shower worked, and she asked him if he was dead three times while he was messing with it. When he finally went to peel off his shirt, he had to painfully pull it away from the areas where the blood had dried and glued his skin and the fabric together. The hot water relaxed the muscles in his shoulder, where he had a raised pink line and a mess of purple bruises, and a shit ton of dried blood smeared across his chest and arm. He scrubbed at his face with his hands, pulling gently at the huge purple bags under his eyes. He felt full, satisfied, for the first time since he’d woken up from the surgery. His stomach felt almost uncomfortably taut, but he waved off the feeling in favor of washing the blood off of his throat. Pink water swirled down the drain almost hypnotizingly, and Kaneki had to refocus himself several times. 

He was greeted with a steaming hot cup of coffee when he exited the bathroom, and when Touka laid out a mat for him and Hide to sleep on, he sank into it as if it was made out of feathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also added those Deleted Scenes to the series if you guys haven't checked them out yet! I'll try to sneak those in between regular html updates.  
> Here's the link just in case: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6897382

**Author's Note:**

> There you have it! I'm very open to constructive criticism (and compliments too, of course) so I'd love to know what you think.


End file.
